need help formatting a date parameter in Oracle BI Publisher RTF template

Question

I'm not talking about using the parameter in the data template - I'm all set there. I need to know how to change the format of a parameter once it hits my RTF template.

I have

<?param@begin: p_Date?>
<? $p_Date?>

This gets my parameter from the report request page onto my report. However, I can't seem to alter the format. I'm sure I just need to understand how to access it, but I'm not that familiar with BI Publisher. I know I can alter the format on the request screen, and that flows through, but I need to alter it on the end result. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Ok, I finally found it. You can use the format_date function; the documentation is a little sparse. My syntax looks like this:

<?xdoxslt:format_date($p_Date, 'MMM yyyy','MM-dd-yyyy', $_XDOLOCALE, $_XDOTIMEZONE)?>

The first parameter is the target format, the second is the input mask. The second can be overridden to use a specific l18n style.