Is the DateFormat read only?

[Graham Samuel]

Just FYI, I think the dictionary is wrong or misleading in respect of what the dateItems does. If you script this in the LC Message Box:

put the date into t1
convert t1 to dateItems
put t1

You get, e.g.
2020,10,29,0,0,0,5


but if you script

put the english time into t1
convert t1 to dateItems
put t1

You get e.g.
2020,10,29,11,40,0,5

i.e if you specify the date, you only get the date; but if you specify the time, you get the date thrown in. I could not deduce this from the Dictionary, but maybe I am just poor at reading what it says.

Graham

> On 29 Oct 2020, at 09:29, Graham Samuel via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Tore - I had forgotten the existence of dateItems. That of course will do the trick. BTW I was trying to create dates in standard UTC format, and now I can.
> 
> Graham
> 
>> On 28 Oct 2020, at 23:18, Tore Nilsen via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>> 
>> You can convert any given date to dateItems. Then you can use dateItems to present the date in any format you like. A date converted to dateItems will give you the following list of items: 
>> 
>> the year
>> the month number
>> the day of the month
>> the hour in 24-hour time
>> the minute
>> the second
>> the numeric day of the week where Sunday is day 1, Monday is day 2, and so forth
>> All according to the Dictionary.
>> 
>> To be sure that any valid date format is recognized as a date when you read in the date you will like to convert, it is best to ask for the system date or set the useSystemDate to true, as this will make all valid date formats convert to dateItems.
>> 
>> Best regards
>> Tore Nilsen
>>> 28. okt. 2020 kl. 22:58 skrev Graham Samuel via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>:
>>> 
>>> A quick test seems to show that the DateFormat can’t be changed by a ‘set’ command.
>>> 
>>> How then can I force a date to be in a given format? I’m really thinking of the difference between US and European dates, i.e
>>> 
>>> d/m/y versus m/d/y
>>> 
>>> Obviously for some types of use, an LC program should be able to force the format for consistency’s sake, regardless of where in the world it’s being run.
>>> 
>>> Can it be done?
>>> 
>>> Graham
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