Newest functions Upload a function Leave a tip My account

There are 2,567 functions in this library.

InterpretDateFromText ( dateText ; noResult )

interpret a date from a date as text string

  Average rating: 4.6 (26 votes) Log in to vote

Tim Anderson - Show more from this author Tim Anderson Group

  Function definition: (Copy & paste into FileMaker's Edit Custom Function window)

/* InterpretDateFromText ( dateText ; noResult ) by Tim Anderson Feb 2015 Updated 25 Feb 2015 to correct a typo (found by John Renfrew)- there was a capital 'J' in '["jan"; 1]'. Thanks for pointing this out John Will try and extract a date from text in a non standard format. Safely interprets dates in formats that FileMaker recognises e.g. 8th October 2009, 9 February 2010, November 1 2007, 8/1/2008, 8.7.11 You have the option - ‘noResult’ - on what to return if a valid date cannot be found. Note that the month name must be either complete or only the first 3 letters, if you want/need to extend this just add more pairs of parameters in the Substitute command, but make sure that you put them in order of the length of the replaced text - see September as an example. Needs no other functions */ Let ( [ _dateT=Lower(dateText); _str= Substitute( _dateT ;["january"; 1] ; ["jan"; 1] ; ["february"; 2] ; ["feb"; 2] ; ["march"; 3] ; ["mar"; 3] ; ["april"; 4] ; ["apr"; 4] ; ["may"; 5] ; ["june"; 6] ; ["jun"; 6] ; ["july"; 7] ; ["jul"; 7] ; ["august"; 8] ; ["aug"; 8] ; ["september"; 9] ; ["sept"; 9] ; ["sep"; 9] ; ["october"; 10] ; ["oct"; 10] ; ["november"; 11] ; ["nov"; 11] ; ["december"; 12] ; ["dec"; 12] ); _stripped = Substitute( _str ; [" " ;"/"]; [" ";"/"]; [".";"/"]); _filt = Filter( _stripped ;"0123456789/-" ); _first = Left( _dateT ;3); _monthFirst = Position ("janfebmaraprmayjunjulaugsepaugoctnovdev"; _first ; 1 ; 1 ) > 0; _date1=GetAsDate( _filt ); _res=Choose( _monthFirst ; _date1 ; Date( Day( _date1 ); Month( _date1 ); Year( _date1 )) ) ] ; Case( IsValid( GetAsDate( _res ) ); _res ; noResult ) ) Click to copy

Will try and extract a date from text in a non standard format. Safely interprets dates in formats that FileMaker recognises

e.g. 8th October 2009, 9 February 2010, November 1 2007, 8/1/2008, 8.7.11

You have the option - ‘noResult’ - on what to return if a valid date cannot be found. Note that the month name must be either complete or only the first 3 letters, if you want/need to extend this just add more pairs of parameters in the Substitute command, but make sure that you put them in order of the length of the replaced text - see September as an example.

 

Comments

		john renfrew, attitude Feb 25, 2015
Tim, typo ; ["Jan"; 1] ; should be ; ["jan"; 1] ;

		Tim Anderson, Tim Anderson Group Feb 25, 2015
Thanks John, corrected!

Log in to post comments.

 

Note: these functions are not guaranteed or supported by BrianDunning.com. Please contact the individual developer with any questions or problems.

Support this website.

This library has been a free commmunity resource for FileMaker users and developers for 20 years. It receives no funding and has no advertisements. If it has helped you out, I'd really appreciate it if you could contribute whatever you think it's worth: