Change duration format
Duration is the difference between two time values. DataPrep offers a wide range of duration formats to choose from. You can choose to apply any of the predefined duration format from the template.
To change the duration format
1. Right-click the Duration column and select the Change duration format option from the context menu.
2. Select a predefined format from the the Duration only or Duration with days sections.
To create custom duration formats
You can select a predefined format and choose to modify it, or you can also construct your own format in the Change duration format to field. You can use the following format strings to create duration formats. Click here to know the supported duration formats.
|
Format string
|
Description
|
Range |
|
D
|
Indicates the Days
|
0 to 36500000
|
|
H
|
Indicates the Hours
|
00 to 23
Note: The range for duration in hours is 0 to 876000000
|
|
m
|
Indicates the Minutes
|
00 to 59
|
|
s
|
Indicates the seconds
|
00 to 59
Note: The range for duration in seconds is 0 to 3153600000000
|
|
SSS
|
Indicates the Milliseconds
|
00 to 999
|
|
SSSSSS
|
Indicates the Microseconds
|
0 to 999999
|
You can use the % symbol to separate the format strings. For example, %D.%H:%m:%s.%SSSSSS where %D is number of days, %H is number of hours, %m is number of minutes, %s is number of seconds, and %SSSSSS is number of microseconds. You can add any literals and delimiters in the duration formats. For example, in the duration, 201 jours 11.12.21, the days literal "jours" is in French language and a dot(.) is used as a delimiter.
Note: When you create formats, a live example is shown above the Change duration format to field.
3. A live preview of the changes is shown as you as you modify the duration formats.
A duration format is invalid if one or more of the following conditions are not met:
- The format cannot be empty.
- You can use a string only once in a format.
- For example, in the duration format, 301.201.21:12:00, the duration is repeated twice which makes it an invalid duration format.
- You can use either microsecond or millisecond in a duration format and not both.
- For example, in the duration format, 12 days 1 hours 2 minutes 1.911 seconds 1.910001 seconds, both microseconds and milliseconds are used which renders it an invalid duration format.
4. You can also apply this transform to multiple Duration columns. Select the columns using the 
icon against Columns to apply.
To apply filters
If you want to apply some filters along with this transform, you can use the filters functionality.
1. Click the Filters tab.
2. Click the 
icon and add the required columns in the Filters section. You can also reorder the filters using the drag and drop method.
3. For every column added, you can select one of the following options from the drop-down:
- Actual: This option lets you filter rows based on the actual values in the column. Click here to know more.
- Data quality: This option lets you filter rows based on the quality of data in the column. Click here to know more.
- Patterns: This option helps you filter rows based on the data patterns in the selected column. Click here to know more.
- Outliers: This option allows you to filter rows based on the outliers present in the data of the selected column. Click here to know more.
Note: The filter options are displayed based on the datatype of the column added for the filter.
4. When you add more than one filter to the Filters section, the logical operators, AND or OR appear next to the filters. You can click to toggle the logical operator between AND and OR.
- Using the logical operators, you can combine the conditions and apply logic to determine the rule of precedence. The final expression is displayed in the Criteria expression box. You can click Edit to alter the default expression using logical operators and parenthesis to specify the precedence or the sequential order as to which condition should be evaluated first. Click Save after making the required changes.
- For example, In the expression, ((1 OR 2) AND (3 OR 4)) , at first the condition ( 1 OR 2 ) will be executed and the condition ( 3 OR 4 ) will be executed next. Thirdly, since, the AND operator is used, the filter will be applied when both the conditions are true.
5. You can further drill down to choose specific values based on the filter option selected for each filter, in the next section.
For example, in the above screenshot, the Data quality option is selected for the All columns filter in the Filters section. Based on the selection, further options to filter specific values are displayed in the All columns (Data quality) section.
6. You can choose to include or exclude the selected items in the last section.
7. If you want to remove all the filters for some reason, you can use the Clear button.
8. A live preview of the filter transform is shown as you make changes.
9. Click the Apply button to apply the transform along with the filters.
To sort data
Under the Sort tab, you can sort data in the ascending or descending order based on any column. You can choose the column in the Sort by column drop down and choose the order to be sorted.
You can use this functionality only with the transform and not as a standalone function. However, you can use the Sort transform if you want only to sort data.
SEE ALSO