How can I get a Telerik Reporting graph to sort the x-axis by a date and format that date? - telerik

Question

I have a Telerik report with a graph. The graph's x-axis is a series of dates. Our client would like those dates in order from oldest to most recent. They also want the dates formatted to not include the time portion of the date. I've tried for the past day to get this to work and can't figure it out. Can someone explain how to do this?
I started out with a graph based on this query:
SELECT AnalysisNumber
, convert(varchar, DateSampled, 01) as DateSampled
, ViscosityAt100C
FROM tblSample
ORDER BY a.DateSampled ASC
The results look correct with the dates in order from oldest to most recent:
but a graph is produced where the dates were not in order:
I can't begin to include all the setting for the graph, but here is what I think is the relevant part. Let me know if there's something else I can show you.
Notice the sorting is by DateSampled which is now, of course, text not a date.
If I remove that sorting (to try to preserve the original sorting from the SQL query), the graph no longer works:
So I tried to use a date instead of text. The query is now this:
SELECT AnalysisNumber
, DateSampled
, ViscosityAt100C
FROM tblSample
ORDER BY a.DateSampled ASC
...the output looks the same:
and the graph looks like this:
The dates are sorted the way I want, but all the dates have a time element that I don't want because it's irrelevant and it takes up too much space.
I tried changing the type in SQL:
Cast(DateSampled as Date) as DateSampled
but it still showed the time in the graph.
I tried formatting it using the properties for the x-axis:
but it did not change the formats of the date. In fact, changing to any of the formats in that property did not change anything.
Lastly I tried to include both a string and date in my query:
SELECT AnalysisNumber
, convert(date, DateSampled) as DateSampledText
, DateSampled
, ViscosityAt100C
FROM tblSample
ORDER BY a.DateSampled ASC
and using the DateSampledText to group by and the DateSampled to sort by:
it just ruins my graph again:
I tried adding the text version to sorting and other variations, but never got the graph back to where it was showing data.
Sorting and formatting a graph doesn't sounds like it should be difficult. This was supposed to be one of the final changes before going into production and I've already spent so much time on this. Can someone tell me how to make this work? Thank you!

Answer 1

I believe you need to change the scale of your graph. I think by default it is Category Scale, but when using dates, you would need to change it to DateTime scale.
In your graph properties, where you set the Format of the X-Axis, there should be a property called Scale. Try setting it to DateTime.
Keith

Answer 2

The reason you can't format the dates is because the graph is treating them as strings.
You need to change the x axis to be of type DateTime Scale instead of Category Scale. Category scale is the default and is more appropriate for when you are graphing the number of Apples, Oranges, and Pears, for example.
In the standalone report designer the setting is under Presentation Category > Coordinate Systems > cartesiancoordinatesystem1 > X Axis > Scale
..
In addition to changing the scale type, because the scale expression is now not just a string, you also need to set the X value on your line series.
This setting is under Presentation Category > Series > lineseries1 > X
For some unknown reason the setting should not be "=Fields.DateSampledText", but "DateSampledText". The documentation is irritating bare of details like this.