---
schema_version: "1"
id: 30a1081a5ba38033b5a36ebac5e6b2c81730fb34a54ead5a8ab8d02f0a666224
title: Considerations for Date Columns
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/analytics/264-0-0/bi_integrate_date_column_considerations.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=analytics.bi_integrate_date_column_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 631a818962f8a3586e9f288d1782e83f136d32a4ea88e35761719ad69969c480
description: Confirm that date values in a column are uniform in format and time zone. Inconsistencies can occur within a data source and after merging data from multiple data sources.
products:
  - CRM Analytics
  - Cross Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Considerations for Date Columns

Confirm that date values in a column are uniform in format and time zone. Inconsistencies can occur within a data source and after merging data from multiple data sources.

Perform the following tasks for date columns.

- Ensure consistent date formats. When combining data from different data sources, sometimes dates are stored in different formats, such as MM-dd-yyyy and yy-MM-dd’T’HH:mm:ss’Z’. Use the [Format Date transformation](https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=bi_integrate_data_prep_date_format.htm&type=0&language=en_US) to make the formats consistent.
- Fix time zone differences in datetime columns. CRM Analytics doesn’t officially support multiple time zones. If a column contains a mix of time zones, consider creating a calculated column with the [Formula transformation](https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=bi_integrate_data_prep_recipe_formula_field.htm&type=5&language=en_US) to add or subtract hours to datetime values to ensure a single time zone.

![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-analytics-bi-264-0-0-production-enus/ec791473-f5b4-4f64-a656-9104f455d966/images/icon_note.png)

Note All date column labels in a dataset must be unique.