In Cognos Reporting Studio I have a data item coming in that is a string representation of a date (varchar2). Example: 20230714 I need to display it in a column as a date in the format 'YYYY/MM/DD' without a timestamp. Example: 2023/07/14 I have used the cast function in the data item expression to convert it from a varchar to a date: cast([X].[Y].[Z], date) The column is now displaying as a date in a 'Month Date, Year' format. Example: July 14, 2023 To change it to my desired format, I went to the column -> Properties -> Data -> Data Format. I believe there is then supposed to be a 'Date' type option, where I can then specify a pattern, but I only see 'Default' and 'Text'. Is this option no longer there? So for now I have selected Text -> Pattern and applied 'yyyy/MM/dd' However my output is still showing in the July 14, 2023 format. Any suggestions on how I can fix this? Is there maybe another function I can use in the expression itself?