String operations to get it right

We have seen one example of performing string manipulation in a macro to swap the columns of a slicer in Chapter 7, Working with Dimensional Models. In this recipe, I will show you more macro functions to manipulate the values and how to achieve the required functionality using them.

Let's say that a report is required to show sales by Date and Product line. This report should show data only for the current month (full month).

Getting ready

Create a simple list report with Date, Product line, and Quantity as columns:

How to do it...

In this recipe, we will see how to use some useful macro functions like current_timestamp, as follows:

1. Open Query Explorer. Go to the query used by the list object.

2. Add a new detail filter and define it as:

   [Date] between #timestampMask (_first_of_month($current_timestamp),'yyyy-mm-dd')#  and #timestampMask(_last_of_month($current_timestamp),'yyyy-mm-dd')#
   

3. Run the report to test it. Unfortunately, the GO Sales database doesn't hold...