[SOLVED] FPreport print date base64 encoded

[dseligo]

I have SQL like this (DB is SQlite):

Code: MySQL  [Select][+][-]

1. select date(insert_date_time) as insert_date
2. from sometable

Column insert_date_time in SQlite is defined like this:

Code: Text  [Select][+][-]

1. insert_date_time datetime default (datetime(current_timestamp, ''localtime''))

Memo in FPreport is created like:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.   Memo := TFPReportMemo.Create(FDataBand);
2.   Memo.Layout.Left := ALeft;
3.   Memo.Layout.Width := AWidth;
4.   Memo.Layout.Top := ATop;
5.   Memo.Layout.Height := AHeight;
6.   Memo.Font.Name := AFont;
7.   Memo.Font.Size := AFontSize;
8.   Memo.TextAlignment.Horizontal := AHorAlignment;
9.   Memo.Text := '[insert_date]';

These are values I get in FPreport (exported to PDF):

Code: Text  [Select][+][-]

1. MjAyNS0wNy0wMw==
2. MjAyNS0wNy0xMw==
3. MjAyNS0wNy0xNQ==
4. MjAyNS0wNy0xOA==

With this:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. WriteLn(Query1.FieldByName('insert_date').AsString);
2. WriteLn(Query1.FieldByName('insert_date').FieldDef.DataType);

I get (for first row):

Code: Text  [Select][+][-]

1. 2025-07-03
2. ftMemo

What could be the cause?

I tried this on FPC 3.2.2 on Windows 11 and Android.

[anse]

SQLite does not care much about defined column data types, and not even about results of functions like DATE() - most of them just return strings (which could be the cause of ftMemo), and the underlying driver you use does not really get information about the originated data type.

[dseligo]

I don't mind string. Question is why FPreport encode this string in base64. And how do I prevent this.

[rvk]

Probably because FPC considers TEXT from SQLite as memo and not as string. Same reason you get (memo) in a tdbgrid. I find this a wrong choice which was introduced some years ago.

TEXT should have stayed a field type ftstring (as it was before).

Similar topic here
https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php?topic=62022.0

You can cast to a varchar or use gettext to return string (same as the solution for tdbgrid).

[dseligo]

Probably because FPC considers TEXT from SQLite as memo and not as string. Same reason you get (memo) in a tdbgrid. I find this a wrong choice which was introduced some years ago.

TEXT should have stayed a field type ftstring (as it was before).

Similar topic here
https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php?topic=62022.0

You can cast to a varchar or use gettext to return string (same as the solution for tdbgrid).

Thank you for the link, solution from answer #5 (from paweld) worked. Casting doesn't work for me.