Report date wild cards
You can use wild card characters in the place of a day, month, or year when you run reports or set up stored reports. Specify these characters in the Date field to substitute for date variables.
This table shows the wild card characters you can use and what the results are.
| Wildcard value | Position | Substitute for | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ** | Month, Day, or Year | All months, days or years | **/**/** |
| ++ | Day | Last day of selected month and selected year | **/++/** |
| -n | Day | Previous 1 to 7 days | **/-1/** |
| +n/-n | Month or Year | Previous or next month or year |
-1/01/09 01/15/-2 |
| number | Month, Day, or Year | Specific month, day, and year | 02/10/10 |
| MF | Day | Monday through Friday of selected month and selected year | **/MF/** |
| Mo,Tu,We,Th,Fr,Sa,Su | Day | Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday only of selected months and selected year | **/MO/10 |
When you use the -n value in the day position, you can specify a value of -1 to -7 only. An example of this wild card in a date range is **/-7/** in the beginning range and **/-2/** in the ending range. This runs the report for the current date less 7 days for the beginning date and the current date less 2 days for the ending date. This wild card can also be used in a Period field, but you are limited to -1 only, to run a report for the previous period.
If you specify a negative value in the month position, the system recognizes when the day is not valid in the previous month. For example, if you specify -1/**/** on July 31, 2010, the system recognizes there is no June 31 and generates the report for June 30 instead.
You can leave the start date blank to prevent a stored report from printing immediately, requiring you to maintain the date each time you print the report.