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miksantoro
Frequent Visitor

How to change the date language for an existing pbix file?

Hi,

I've been trying to look everywhere but can't find a solution to this problem:

 

I have a pbix file that was created in a PowerBI in italian. I'm using an English version of PowerBI, but months and quarters are still shown in italian!

 

If I were to create a new file, the date hierarchy would show in english, but I can't recreate the pbix from scratch as it contains almost 100 complex reports and views.

 

Please help me figure out how to change the date hierarchy languange.

 

I read also the thread https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Change-language-in-date-year-month-day/m-p/75731/highlight/..., but can't find a solution.

 

I also tried to look "inside" the pbix to see if the original locale was stored anyware, but could only find a Timeline.js file that contains the correct values (english) for months and quarters..

 

Thank you very much!

Michael

 

15 REPLIES 15
Pwalczak
New Member

Ok this is EXTREMELY silly that this is still yet to be fixed after literal years of reporting this issue (come on Microsoft it can't be that hard) here is a workaround I used.

1. Go to transform data. Go to your "Date" column and make sure it can be split easily, for example yyyy.mm.dd or dd.mm.yyyy etc.
2. Use the split column functionality to make this into 3 columns. Rename them to Year, Month, Day.
2.5. Optionally add a quarter column by rounding up a division of the month column by 3.
3. Use the Year column to create a new hierarchy. Rename it to "date".
4. Add the quarter, month and day to the hierarchy (in this exact order).

Now you have a new hierarchy that will show numbers instead of names of months, circumventing the issue entirely. You will have to re-hook your tables to this new hierarchy and sort them because the default sorting will almost certainly be incorrect.

shiningxu
Employee
Employee

Any update on this? We've encountered exactly the same problem and this is extremely frustrating.

RafaelPrandiniT
New Member

Hello everyone,

Yes an option to change date hierarchy is needed because I've just lost 2 days fixing a problem on my pbi, and the solution was to reconstruct the whole database, my surprise? I've had recreated it on a different Language regional setting than it was before...

So, here comes a workaround that can help some of you(those who split datasets from reports in differtent files), even if it takes a lot of work:

1 - Go into powerquery.
2 - Select and copy all tables.
3 - Create on another window of power bi a new file (Remember to set all the regional settings to your regional needs)
4 - Paste all Tables from powerquery on the new powerquery (yes it works)
5 - (and most tiresome) Remake all calculated columns and measures.
6 - If you had your report on a different file, wait a bit before publishing it (or create a secondary file "clone it"), powerbi won't recognize the new hierarchy as being the same fields as before, you may have to re-configure some of your visuals.


Yes, it's a lot of trouble, but it's possible without actually remaking it from scratch (but only short of actually doing so).

tomerfaith
Frequent Visitor

I Have a Temporary Solution:
-Have a Date Table 
-Create 4 calculated columns  - one with year , one with quarter , one with month  and one with day. 
-Create a custome heirarchy  
-Place all the date elements you created in the heirarchy in the righ order
-Use this Heirarchy instead of the date you were using

You are Done!! Smiley Happy

If anyone need help regarding this or somthing else you can Message me.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Any chance we get this feature soon? My colegue created very complex model in German language settings, having all created from 0 will take me some time for sure.

Anonymous
Not applicable

This is a needed feature. As in desperately needed.  English users are tasked with viewing Chinese dates in some of the cases impacting my user community.  #notgood

Anonymous
Not applicable

.PBIX was originally written using a Desktop client set to Chinese (simplified).  Before posting original post, I did attempt to change the 'Locale' settings to English.  I saved the .pbix, closed the desktop, re-launched the desktop and no change.2017-08-17_16-37-19.jpg

The reports will be consumed by users Globally, so I need to have the .pbix files in English.  I think the only way to do that now is to have the developer in China set his desktop client to English when creating the .pbix.

Please keep me posted about this possible solution.

I think, the developer will have to set the locale to English and then re-develop all the reports.

 

As of now I don't believe that a solution exists to change a locale for an existing pbix.

v-ljerr-msft
Employee
Employee

Hi @miksantoro,

 

This is by design and there is no option to change it currently. The Product Team have created a Design Change Request in the internal system for tracking. Smiley Happy

 

Regards

Thank you @v-ljerr-msft for the info.

Do you know if there's any way to accomplish something similar, like an extract/import, or a special save as?

What is the usual timing for a CR?

 

Thank you,

Michael

Hi @miksantoro,


Do you know if there's any way to accomplish something similar, like an extract/import, or a special save as?


After a few try, I still cannot find a possible solution to workaround this.


What is the usual timing for a CR?


I have no idea of what the usual timing is, but I will try to confirm it with others, and let you know if I can get some response from them. Smiley Happy

 

Regards

Hello!

 

Is there any news related to this issue?

 

We need it too 🙂

Hi @m_miracle, no news as of now.

Hopefully @v-ljerr-msft can come back with some updates. But I guess the implementation of the solution will require some longer time. So my suggestion to you is to recreate the reports to avoid the language issue.

 

Thanks,

Michael

Hello!

 

Is there any news related to this issue?

 

We need it too 🙂

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