Kettle data integration: dates always blank on excel output or excel writer

Question

On kettle data integration v. 5.2.0.0 running on windows 8.1 under Java v. 1.8.0_25, I've a MS SQL Server 2008-sr2 table input having some fields, I've created a MySQL table output and all fields are correctly copied into the MySQL output (simple copy of all fields without any customization).

If I try to write the same source data to an excel output or excel writer all resulting date fields are always blank, I can't understand how to solve the issue...

Any suggestion ?

Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

I had the same problem and this worked for me:

I inserted a "Select values" step before the excel writer step that changed the date metadata Type to "Date" and Format to "dd/MM/yyyy" (this is italian locale, may be different for you).

I only added one line in the third sheet of the "Select values" step (the metadata part). You don't even need to list all the other fields in the first sheet since "no fields" means "all fields" there.

This is my configuration: Jre7, Kettle 5.2.0.0, Windows 7 Professional, MariaDB 5.5.39

Answer 2

You just have to convert that field into date format. You could cast your field into a Date one by using a Calculator stept with this configuration:

• new field: name of the field that you are going to print y your excel
• Calculation: Create a copy of field A
• Field A: the field you've just read from your table which contains your date
• Value type: Date
• Conversion mask: you shoud specify the format of the field A date

You should print in your Excel field the "new field" field you've just created with the Calculator Step.