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AL Language Reference

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Posted on by Jidl

Hello,

Is there a more comprehensive AL Language reference available than the one at MSDOCs?

I'm attempting to code around this issue:

https://community.dynamics.com/business/f/dynamics-365-business-central-forum/374591/edm-error-with-odata-feed-and-date-datatype

And would like to know if there are any inbuilt functions in AL to cast columns to other data types.

Any help much appreciated.

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Stefano Demiliani 37,166 Most Valuable Professional on at

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What do you mean with "comprehensive AL language reference"?

Your problem listed here seems related to the OData component you're using. A Date field in D365BC is a Datetime under the hood (SQL level). Please try to remove the caption in the query (maybe it's a problem of field name?).

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Jidl 45 on at

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Sorry - that wasn't meant to sound like a complaint.

I've been looking here as a source: docs.microsoft.com/.../devenv-programming-in-al

If I take the api query object as an example:

docs.microsoft.com/.../devenv-api-querytype

The caption property:

docs.microsoft.com/.../devenv-caption-property

Is, as far as I can tell, a mandatory field (if I omit it the package compiles and publishes, but goes to an error page). The doc doesn't mention this.

Maybe it's a function of the language being relatively new - or devs having come over from nav / CSIDE (which I've never used) - but there seems to be lack of reference material. Again - not a complaint - just struggling to find the answers and wondering if there is another source developers are using.

For the data type issue. My understanding was that the OData component picks up the expected datatypes from a metadata call first? I can't remove the caption. I can't see that I can convert the data type (explicitly cast it as a DATETIME).

If it's a full date time (i.e., has both data and time values) then it works fine. But '2019-12-10 00:00:00' would throw an error. And '1792-01-01 08:21' would also throw an error.

Thanks!

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Stefano Demiliani 37,166 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Caption is not mandatory (recommended, but not mandatory). When you publish an object as an API page a caption should always be placed in camel case notation (for example modifiedDate instead of "Modified Date").

I mention caption because there are some third party OData components that has problems with OData fields not in camel case format.

I've never see a problem like yours, Datetime fields in a query and with Odata works without problems (I've lots of Odata components that do that).

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Jidl 45 on at

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Great - I hadn't clocked the camel case requirement - I'll give that a go. Thanks!

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Jidl 45 on at

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Unfortunately this didn't make a difference.

Data like the below, with all three being DateTime in the source:

With a column on the API page setup like this:

            column(lastDateModified;"Last Date Modified")

            {

                Caption = 'lastDateModified';

            } //#62

Results in this error every time:

If I bring through just the Last Modified Datetime it works as expected. So does the Last Modified Time - it's just the Last Modified Date that throws it.

In addition, if I call the $metadata I get:

<Property Name="LastDateTimeModified" Type="Edm.DateTimeOffset">...</Property>

<Property Name="lastDateModified" Type="Edm.Date">...</Property>

<Property Name="lastTimeModified" Type="Edm.String" MaxLength="4">...</Property>

So I'm wondering if it's possible to explicitly cast columns in the query object code?.

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Jidl 45 on at

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For reference, I found blog.steveendow.com/.../microsoft-dynamics-365-business-central.html to be of enormous benefit.

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sdjensen75 20 on at

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Hi @Jidl,

Were you able to solve your problem? I am having the same issue with a query where I need Posting Date from G/L Entry.

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