If you write Crystal Reports against Accpac, now called Sage 300 ERP, your reports have probably seen or used the function pwFormatDate(). This is a custom function installed by Accpac that converts the numeric dates in Accpac into true date values. The raw data is an 8 digit numeric like 20161231 which is converted into a date by a formula like this:

pwFormatDate ({BKTRANH.TRANSDATE})

Sometimes my Accpac customers will try to send me a report saved with data. But because I don’t have Accpac installed, I don’t have the dll that provides this custom function (u2lcapw.dll). Crystal can’t load the saved data because the formulas that use this function generate errors. In researching this topic I have found that even some Accpac users get this error, despite the fact that the dll is installed.

Fortunately, you don’t need the dll or the custom function to convert these numbers into dates. I have had formulas on my web site for years that convert string and numeric dates into true dates. I just recently updated the formula that can replace pwFormatDate(). The formula above could be replaced by the following formula. It is longer, but it doesn’t require installing or troubleshooting any dlls:

Local NumberVar input := {BKTRANH.TRANSDATE}; // use your field name
// This line checks for a minimum value, any value will work.
Local StringVar DateString :=
If input < 19500101 then '19500101' else Totext (Input, 0, '');

Date (
Val (DateString [1 to 4]),
Val (DateString [5 to 6]),
Val (DateString [7 to 8]) )

Also, using this formula instead of using pwFormatDate() allows your reports to be opened with saved data on any PC that has Crystal Reports. So, if you are getting errors that say this dll can’t be found you can convert to using the formula above and be done with the dll.

Update 10/12/208:

Ido Millet of Millet Software suggested an alternate approach:

Local NumberVar input := {BKTRANH.TRANSDATE}; // use your field name
// This line checks for a minimum value, any value will work.
If input < 19500101
then Date (0,0,0) else
Date(Picture(ToText(input,0,""),"xxxx/xx/xx"))