can you use parameters to set date/time formats in semantic models?

[Bodo]

Hello everyone.

I have a semantic model with a lot of date & time fields. I want to publish this model in different regions so that other people can create their reports on it. The date format in each region is different.

Is there a way to set the date or time format in the semantic model using a parameter so that I don't have to manually change all the time formats for each region?

Or is there another way to quickly adjust all date and time formats in the model?

Thanks
Bodo

[v-jialongy-msft]

Hi @Bodo 

With what I've learned so far, Power BI itself does not provide a native feature to dynamically change date formats in a semantic model based on user location or a parameter directly within the model. Date formatting in Power BI is generally set at either the report level or influenced by the locale settings of the end user's Power BI service or Desktop application.

You can consider the following step to manage different date formats for users in various regions:

Custom Columns for Date Formatting:

• You can create custom calculated columns in your model for different date formats. For example, you can have one column formatted for the US and another for the UK. Users can then choose the appropriate column based on their location.

USDateFormat = FORMAT('Table'[OriginalDate], "MM/DD/YYYY")

EUDateFormat = FORMAT('Table'[OriginalDate], "DD/MM/YYYY")

Best Regards,

Jayleny

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Bodo]

Thanks @v-jialongy-msft for your answer. 

This would mean that you would have to double the number of Date & Time fields for each required format. In order not to confuse the users, the unwanted formats for their region would have to be set to hidden manually afterwards.

The possibility to use parameters here would have given me a simpler solution to be able to update the semantic models in the future. Increasing the number of fields will probably be more effort than benefit.

If I cannot find a way to change this globally in one place, I will probably create a separate semantic model for each region.

Thanks again for your support.
Bodo

[lbendlin]

Will they all use the reports in the same language or are you planning to implement full blown localization?

[Bodo]

Yes, at this moment I plan to only to use english as language.

[lbendlin]

You could choose to brute force all your values into formatted text strings.  I don't think that's a good idea.

[Bodo]

You are right, that is not a good idea 😉

Then you lose all the functionality of data type (aggregation, date dimensions, etc.)