IBM Support

Concatenated string with integer shows asterisk '*' for two digit numbers

Troubleshooting


Problem

We have a report expression that combines the text "month" and the integer "year". Even though we've cast the year to a 4 character string, it is still showing an asterisk (*) instead of the number. For example, we're looking to get "April 2010", but instead we're getting "April, *" from the expression: [Month] + ' ' + cast([Year],char(4))

Symptom

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[{"Product":{"code":"SSEP7J","label":"Cognos Business Intelligence"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Component":"Report Studio","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"8.4.1","Edition":"All Editions","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB76","label":"Data Platform"}},{"Product":{"code":"SSEP7J","label":"Cognos Business Intelligence"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Component":"Report Studio","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"","label":"HP Itanium"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"8.4.1","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB76","label":"Data Platform"}},{"Product":{"code":"SS6G84","label":"IBM Cognos Analytics on Cloud"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Component":" ","Platform":[{"code":"","label":""}],"Version":"","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB76","label":"Data Platform"}},{"Product":{"code":"SSLKT6","label":"IBM Maximo Asset Management"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Component":" ","Platform":[{"code":"","label":""}],"Version":"","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB77","label":"Automation Platform"}}]

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Document Information

Modified date:
13 January 2026

UID

swg21450112