# Flex Repeater Type Casting Dates

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/flex-repeater-type-casting-dates/41344>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective\
**Created:** [December 9, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/flex-repeater-type-casting-dates/41344 "2020-12-09T16:53:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ryanjmclaughlin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ryanjmclaughlin/32/4318_2.png) [@ryanjmclaughlin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ryanjmclaughlin)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/flex-repeater-type-casting-dates/41344/1 "2020-12-09T16:53:22Z")

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I am using a flex repeater in 8.0.16 to show a view of some data. The instances are bound to a named query.

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/b/c/bc4d0a0472ea5c478ffb614afb55cb1c6055e6ea.png)

I am finding that for the date objects are showing in the designer as date objects, and I have setup the corresponding params on the subview.

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/a/7/a72da023c149c586a13ad4dcaf07aafa791ff35d.png)

With this setup, in my subview the object type is java.util.Date in the designer. However, when I switch over to runtime, the object is now org.python.core.PyUnicode.

This obviously throws all sorts of odd behavior. Is there a reason why the types are different when the params are sent to the subview in a flex repeater? Is this expected and I should always assume dates are sent as strings to the repeater instances?

The designer keeps trying to be smart and auto-upgrade the strings to date objects, so I am struggling to give the designer a date string to work with.

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**Author:** ![jball](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jball/32/11128_2.png) [@jball](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jball)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/flex-repeater-type-casting-dates/41344/2 "2020-12-09T17:06:59Z")

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@ryanjmclaughlin, a fix for this behavior is available in the current nightly and will be part of the 8.1.2 release.