Date Spine — Hex Reporting Utility
Generates a complete date spine from 2025-01-01 through yesterday, with period bucketing driven by a time_grain parameter input in Hex.
Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Options |
|---|---|---|
time_grain |
Hex input | Day, Week, Month, Quarter |
Output Columns
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
dt |
Raw date (one row per calendar day) |
period_start_display_text |
Human-readable period label (e.g. Jan 2025, Q1 2025) |
period_start_date |
Truncated date for the start of the period — use this for joining or sorting |
Usage
Join period_start_date to a fact table's date column to group metrics by the selected time grain. Because every calendar day is present, this spine correctly handles periods with no activity (zero-fill by left joining from the spine).
Notes
- Row generator produces 6,000 rows (~16 years of daily dates from the anchor date)
- Filters to
dt < CURRENT_DATEto exclude today - Anchor date (
2025-01-01) can be adjusted if historical data predates it