# Expression returning 3 dots (elipsis -\> ...)

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/expression-returning-3-dots-elipsis/54093>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective, ignition81, scripting\
**Created:** [December 14, 2021, 10:56am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/expression-returning-3-dots-elipsis/54093 "2021-12-14T10:56:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Resistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/resistor/32/30634_2.png) [@Resistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Resistor)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 10:56am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/expression-returning-3-dots-elipsis/54093/1 "2021-12-14T10:56:40Z")

</div>

I have a very simple OEE module (I think it was working properly) but some minutes ago the expression I used for it is returning (…) and now the OEE “component” I made is showing 0

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/e/3/e3a609bbc68894e7d16924fe8c50855d2ef8ae4f.png)

P.S. unseen on the left is just the root of my tag for the number of good parts (which is correct). It just suddenly stopped working, does it maybe have something to do wit the format of time?

```auto
(({nGoodParts.value}*0.87)-69)/secondsBetween('06:00:00', now())*100 

```

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/c/7/c7640f3e42976ea0528fce23ec55d85e5aafb7a9.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Transistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/transistor/32/3380_2.png) [@Transistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Transistor)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/expression-returning-3-dots-elipsis/54093/2 "2021-12-14T11:58:34Z")

</div>

> [@Resistor](#):
>
> `(({nGoodParts.value}*0.87)-69)/secondsBetween('06:00:00', now())*100 `

Your time isn't specific enough and it needs to include the date. Try this:

```auto
( ({nGoodParts.value} * 0.87) - 69) / secondsBetween(
	dateArithmetic(
		midnight(now()),
		6,
		"hour"
	),
	now() 
) * 100
 

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Resistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/resistor/32/30634_2.png) [@Resistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Resistor)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/expression-returning-3-dots-elipsis/54093/3 "2021-12-14T12:22:34Z")

</div>

Thanks! I forgot to mark it as solved.  
I used the dateFormat expression function

```auto
(({nGoodParts.value}*0.87)-69)/secondsBetween(dateFormat(now(),'yyy-MM-dd 06:00:00'), now())*100

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ea5d25/32.png) [@zacht](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/zacht)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/expression-returning-3-dots-elipsis/54093/4 "2021-12-14T15:34:10Z")

</div>

> [@Resistor](#):
>
> `secondsBetween(dateFormat(now(),'yyy-MM-dd 06:00:00'), now())`

Working is working, but the types don't match for some of these functions. [`dateFormat`](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/dateFormat) returns a String. The first argument of [`secondsBetween`](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/*Between) should be a Date. Ignition is probably doing the conversion for you implicitly, but @Transistor's solution uses the correct data types. I'd expect it to be more robust and possibly more performant for that reason.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Resistor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/resistor/32/30634_2.png) [@Resistor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Resistor)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2021, 8:46am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/expression-returning-3-dots-elipsis/54093/5 "2021-12-15T08:46:52Z")

</div>

The man has spoken!

It’s true what you say, I had not thought about that insight. Although technically a string can be easily coerced into date type when properly formatted (I think)