Date Problem

[B Philip Gerber]

In my Database I was updateing a Date field in the top (master) Table. The form used the Date Entry type which I like, but I would get a message about "field Requires time" or something, But it would NOT let me enter a date. After I entered the other dates I need to update I used the default browses selected the Record and entered the date.
I am not sure about the message as I though A5 did not have a Time Field type. I entered about 500 changes (Dates) and only about 30 had this error. I could reenter the date in the form and it looked like it worked but if you selected the record again the date was blank.
I hope I set something the caused this as I can NOT sell a system that sometimes it will not accept a Date.

Thanks
Philip Gerber

[Scott Emerick]

RE: Date Problem

Philip,

Its hard to say what might be happening with out seeing it happen or at least a screen shot.

If your telling us that you have entered 500 changes in the same table on the same field in the same form and 30 of them were rejected, I would have to say those 30 were typos or something to do with the data being entered.

There is nothing wrong with A5 and dates. I have been using the product for over 14 years and never had a glitch with dates. This is basic stuff.

If you can duplicate the problem, show us an example so we can see it happen too.

Scott

[B Philip Gerber]

RE: Date Problem

Scott
I hoped the problem was in my entry, I used the date format thing to enter dates, and my mouse is jumpy.
One other thing that bothers me is the lack of a true "TIME" field. When you try to convert from access the import does not convert the field. I can not think of an acpplaction that does NOT use TIME. I hope A5 has an update for this type of entry. The other problem I may also have with the Date field is "on change" I save (re-write) the record, could this also cause a problem?

Thanks
Philip

[rtbtat]

RE: Date Problem

Philip:

Here is part of an old article I wrote for Alpha Five ver 4.

In the process of creating database applications, one feature many of you will eventually need is the ability to record and/or calculate elapsed time. In order to calculate time differentials, you can use Alpha�s built in functions, totime() and toseconds().

I think once you become familiar with these two functions, you will find it relatively easy to create the necessary calculations.

CHARACTER: Totime(number_value, format_code, decimal_places)

Use totime() to convert the number of seconds into hours and minutes for a character based display of time such as 9:45 am.

NUMERIC: Toseconds(character_value) will return the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight [86,400 seconds = 24 hours].

This function will calculate the number of seconds elapsed whether you decide to use 24-hour formatting or the more conventional am/pm format. The result of the expression will be a numeric value.

OK, now that we know these two functions exist, how do we use them to display and/or calculate elapsed time? Here is an example that calculates and displays the number of hours worked for your employees. You can get fairly sophisticated with these functions, but we will keep it basic and simple for the purposes of this article. I personally prefer using 24-hour formatting, but you can set up your own example using 12-hour [am/pm] formatting.

--------------------------------

I think the above should at least point you in the right direction.

Philip, you can create a character based field and then manually enter time. Or you can also create a character field that is a "calculated field" using your computer's clock.

Note:

Some people like the idea of separting Date and time into their own fields, I happen to be one of them. I didn't care for Access's combo date/time fields. This is a matter of personal preference.

Hope this helps get you started,
Robert T

[B Philip Gerber]

RE: Date Problem

Robert
Thank you, I work with when it happen not How long. What I do want to prevent is 13:01 AM. and system time field would prevent this or it should. I think setting a Button or something to set current time in a field would be very helpfull.
Thanks
Philip G.

[rtbtat]

RE: Date Problem

Hello Philip:

I'm sorry but I didn't understand your last message. Anyway, I think you should go to help and examine the documentation on
the

TIME() function

I think that may be what you want.

Robert T