# Report errors returned poor quality or null **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [July 25, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180 "2021-07-25T20:40:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Seth.williamson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Seth.williamson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Seth.williamson)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/1 "2021-07-25T20:40:40Z")
Im trying to create a report this is the first report i have ever done and i keep getting errors. I am attaching pictures. I keep getting this error WARN: Default value expression for parameter “StartString” returned poor quality: [null, Error\_ExpressionEval(“Date argument to dateFormat function cannot be null”), Wed Jul 07 21:22:10 EDT 2021 (1625707330570)] and WARN: Error executing query parameter expression " {StartString}" not sure how to fix this or whats wrong ![report code](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/9/3/9301bd025fd94e29635edcddfdcaef8d7ba58bcb.png) ![report view](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/3/f/3f4eba72f168fdfa4b3fec866f8840972403e1f0.png) ![report](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/9/0/90810220c5629c1147371f6d14b85b18591b1da3.png) ---
**Author:** ![zacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ea5d25/32.png) [@zacht](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/zacht)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/2 "2021-07-26T14:27:26Z")
Several thoughts: 1. Remove the leading space from the Parameter 1 and Parameter 2 boxes. This probably isn’t your problem, but housekeeping is always a good start for troubleshooting. 2. To fix the error that’s being thrown I think we’ll need to see the expression for StartString. It looks like the expression isn’t formatted correctly. (Doesn’t have enough arguments?) 3. I don’t think you need to convert the dates to strings to use in your SELECT query. You should be able to pass the Date objects in directly and the JDBC driver will do the magic for you. The one reason this might not be true is if you’re changing the dates in your StartString/EndString logic, but we’ll be able to see that when you post that logic. Here is the documentation for dateFormat. It may be useful. [dateFormat](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/dateFormat) ---
**Author:** ![Seth.williamson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Seth.williamson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Seth.williamson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/3 "2021-07-26T16:11:01Z")
Here is the code for the startstring and endstring parameters dateFormat({StartDate}, ‘yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss’) dateFormat({EndDate}, ‘yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss’) ---
**Author:** ![zacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ea5d25/32.png) [@zacht](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/zacht)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/4 "2021-07-26T16:24:40Z")
What is the code for the StartDate paramter? Please use code formatting when pasting code to the forums. It makes it much easier to read. You can do this by highlighting the section of text and pushing the Preformatted Text Button. It looks like this. \ ---
**Author:** ![Seth.williamson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Seth.williamson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Seth.williamson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/5 "2021-07-26T16:45:08Z")
![end](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/9/e/9e568379a4b0481d2f9264595134fbb6ccc648bf.png) ![start](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/b/f/bf43ee75452ba2ed3cffbdb82e235c3014d50606.png) ---
**Author:** ![zacht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ea5d25/32.png) [@zacht](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/zacht)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/6 "2021-07-26T16:56:29Z")
What’s the code on the StartDate parameter? ---
**Author:** ![Seth.williamson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Seth.williamson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Seth.williamson)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/7 "2021-07-26T17:15:23Z")
```auto dateArithmetic(now(), -8, "hr") ``` ---
**Author:** ![r123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@r123](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/r123)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 1:07am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/report-errors-returned-poor-quality-or-null/49180/8 "2023-06-17T01:07:52Z")
I'm seeing this also but I don't know what it wants for the format. The EndDate parameter seem ok with the now function. `now()` The StartDate parameter is using the EndDate parameter. `dateArithmetic({EndDate}, -4, "minutes")` This causes the error: _WARN: Default value expression for parameter "StartDate" returned poor quality_ If I use the now function in the StartDate parameter then there is no error. `dateArithmetic(now(), -4, "minutes")` Both StartDate and EndDate are type Date.