# Reporting - data key alias getting modified

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-data-key-alias-getting-modified/63373>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition80\
**Created:** [August 24, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-data-key-alias-getting-modified/63373 "2022-08-24T01:22:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JohnIrving](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/johnirving/32/37638_2.png) [@JohnIrving](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JohnIrving)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-data-key-alias-getting-modified/63373/1 "2022-08-24T01:22:45Z")

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I’ve got a report where the Data Key Alias is getting modified in the report raw XML and then in the bar chart legend, only when the name starts with a number.

For example when my name is `117a_117b` the corresponding line of the XML file is `<a_117b __>1</a_117b__ >`.

Changing the alias to `x117a_117b` results in the correct name in the XML file `<x117a_117b>1</x117a_117b>`

I have several other reports with similar data that do not behave this way. The only difference I can find is that the tag names of the tag history I’m pulling are very inconsistent named on this report, with many having spaces in the tag name. Within the problem report though, even tags without spaces in the name are having the same incorrect name in the XML file.

EDIT: Have other reports doing this that have no spaces in the tag names, don’t think that has anything to do with it.

Thanks

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 2:07am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-data-key-alias-getting-modified/63373/2 "2022-08-24T02:07:17Z")

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Ignition doesn’t require tag and tag folder names to follow typical naming restrictions found in programming languages (not starting with numbers, not having spaces or punctuation, etc), but there have been numerous bugs where some part of the code has that expectation. The reporting module’s core is licensed from a third party where this appears to be prevalent.

IA will fix (probably, eventually, but not for end-of-life versions like v8.0), but the problem is likely never-ending.

You should avoid this problem by enforcing a policy of only using tag and tag folder names that are valid Jython identifiers. (That will make them java and javascript compliant as well.)