How to select the most recent date in a drop down box in Visual Analytics

[DirkHorsten]

In a Visual Analytics report in SAS VIYA 3.5, I have a drop down box to select the date for which to show the data.

By default, I want to show the current situation, i.e. the last date present in the data.

In the settings for a drop down box, there is an "Initially select first item" check box, but no option to initially select the last, nor an option to sort in reverse order.

The solution suggested in different forums is to change the sort order of the data item used in the drop down in the in data pane. However that only works with so called "categorical" variables and SAS VA does not see dates as categorical variables.

Does anyone know a workaround?

For completeness: a picture in the data pane, date variables are shown with a calendar icon (In this case the date is calculated from a time stamp. That is why there is a calculator in the icon too.) Categorical variables are shown with a tree legged symbol. The context menu for categorical variables has a Custom sort option. That for dates not.

[KeithM]

I have a date data item and I can sort on it in a drop down list. 

When I right mouse click on the drop down list, I get the following:

[DirkHorsten]

Thanks KeithM, but this does not work, probably because we are running a different version of SAS VIYA.

84   %put _automatic_;
AUTOMATIC AFDSID 0
...
AUTOMATIC SYSVER V.03.05 
AUTOMATIC SYSVLONG V.03.05M0P111119
AUTOMATIC SYSVLONG4 V.03.05M0P11112019
...

For me, clicking the right mouse button on the dots left of the drop down box gives

I have the impression you put your dropdown box in the page controls. I put it on the page itself, because it should not filter the whole page.
So I just tried putting a similar drop down in the page controls, but that did not resolve the issue.

[KeithM · Accepted solution]

Don't click on the three dots.  Right mouse click in the body of the drop down.  Where the X is in my screen capture.