String format

[deepak]

Hi All,

1. This is my string

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM last
comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment only ER_Kista /
2/19/2008 9:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:47:00 AM"

I want to extract all those dates in this(here count is 4) and wants to
change them in the format say 2008-02-19T09:45:00(FOR 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM
e.g.) and 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z(FOR 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM) ,means 24 hours time
and then wants to store them in their postitions

like


"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z last
comment only ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:45:00Z last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:45:59 last comment only ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:47:00Z"

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.



How is this possible?This string has many dates like above in the sentence
but format will remian same(i.e. m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss) so solution should be
general

Kindly help me

2. the other string wil be in the below format e.g. say

ER_Kista , 2/19/2008 9:47:50 PM

i want it to be printed as 2008-02-19T21:47:50Z

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

Kindly assist me.


Thanks in advande for your work on this issue,
Deepak

 

[Lars]

Hi

I'm not used to program ASP.NET. But some things ring a bell for me.

Can you transform the string to a date time type. The you should be able to
display the date time depending on who is using the date. I know you can do
this in Delphi.

BTW
We all know that the people with English as native language use the "old"
type of writing dates. Dates should be written YYYYMMDD and noting else!
"Slutdiskuterat"

Lars

 

[deepak]

Hi Lars,

The question is how to pick up these from this string?This string can have
many dates in this format and on diffrent places in this sentence(i.e.
string).
Usign any Array?
Kindly help me

- Deepak

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

BTW
We all know that the people with English as native language use the "old"
type of writing dates. Dates should be written YYYYMMDD and noting else!
"Slutdiskuterat"

No they shouldn't, at least, not of you want the dates to be unambiguous...

What date is 20080302?

For dates to be unambiguous, they need four-digit years *AND* at least
three-digit months...

 

[George Ter-Saakov]

20080302 is March 2,2008
Why is it ambiguous? YYYYMMDD means 4 digits of year, 2 digits of month, 2
digits of day of the month....

The desire to keep dates as YYYYMMDD came from old COBOL/RPG world. Dates
were kept as strings in databases cause this formatting allows sorting by
date....

How they are presented to the humans is different stories. And I disagree
with Lars. Date must be written in format humans like... And kept in
database in datetime data fields

George.

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

20080302 is March 2,2008

How do you know?

Why is it ambiguous? YYYYMMDD means 4 digits of year, 2 digits of month,
2 digits of day of the month....

Because when you see 20080302 on a website (or whatever), you can't know
what format the date is in...

The desire to keep dates as YYYYMMDD came from old COBOL/RPG world. Dates
were kept as strings in databases cause this formatting allows sorting by
date....

Yes I know that, but the average web user doesn't have a history of COBOL
programming...

Date must be written in format humans like...

It doesn't matter whether they like the date format or not - what's
important is that they understand it...

 

[George Ter-Saakov]

Yep, that is what I said. Date must be shown in format user understand.
It's just the guy Lars specifically said that date must be in format
YYYYMMDD. And you replied that it's ambiguous which is not after format has
been established.

George.

 

[Jesse Houwing]

Hello deepak,

Hi All,

1. This is my string

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM
last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment only
ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM"

I want to extract all those dates in this(here count is 4) and wants
to change them in the format say 2008-02-19T09:45:00(FOR 2/19/2008
9:45:00 AM e.g.) and 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z(FOR 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM)
,means 24 hours time and then wants to store them in their postitions

like

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z
last comment only ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:45:00Z last comment only
ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:45:59 last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:47:00Z"

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

How is this possible?This string has many dates like above in the
sentence but format will remian same(i.e. m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss) so
solution should be general

Kindly help me

2. the other string wil be in the below format e.g. say

ER_Kista , 2/19/2008 9:47:50 PM

i want it to be printed as 2008-02-19T21:47:50Z

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

Kindly assist me.

Thanks in advande for your work on this issue,
Deepak

The following code does the trick:

======

private static readonly Regex rx = new Regex("[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{4}
[0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} (AM|PM)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
private static string ReplaceDates(Match m)
{
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(m.Value, "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return date.ToString("s") + "Z";
}

string input = "The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 12/19/2008
8:37:00 PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 10:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM";
string output = rx.Replace(input, new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceDates));

======

The regex takes care of finding all occurances of a date/time string in your
original input text.

The MatchEvaluator is used to parse the dates (I used the exact format used
here to make sure it parses correctly).

Then I rewrote every match using the "s" for sortable datetime format. This
doesn't append the "Z" at the end (the u(niversal) format does that, but
that doesn't have the T in the middle). I appended that manually.

I think it solves both your issues, as the format is the same in both strings.

Am I correct?

If you still have any questions, please let me know.

 

[deepak]

Hi Jesse,
Thanks,but i wanted this code to be in VB.NET.May you help me to transform
it into vb.net?
- Deepak

Hello deepak,

Hi All,

1. This is my string

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM
last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment only
ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM"

I want to extract all those dates in this(here count is 4) and wants
to change them in the format say 2008-02-19T09:45:00(FOR 2/19/2008
9:45:00 AM e.g.) and 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z(FOR 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM)
,means 24 hours time and then wants to store them in their postitions

like

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z
last comment only ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:45:00Z last comment only
ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:45:59 last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:47:00Z"

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

How is this possible?This string has many dates like above in the
sentence but format will remian same(i.e. m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss) so
solution should be general

Kindly help me

2. the other string wil be in the below format e.g. say

ER_Kista , 2/19/2008 9:47:50 PM

i want it to be printed as 2008-02-19T21:47:50Z

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

Kindly assist me.

Thanks in advande for your work on this issue,
Deepak

The following code does the trick:

======

private static readonly Regex rx = new Regex("[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{4}
[0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} (AM|PM)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
private static string ReplaceDates(Match m)
{
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(m.Value, "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return date.ToString("s") + "Z";
}

string input = "The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 12/19/2008
8:37:00 PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 10:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM";
string output = rx.Replace(input, new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceDates));

======

The regex takes care of finding all occurances of a date/time string in your
original input text.

The MatchEvaluator is used to parse the dates (I used the exact format used
here to make sure it parses correctly).

Then I rewrote every match using the "s" for sortable datetime format. This
doesn't append the "Z" at the end (the u(niversal) format does that, but
that doesn't have the T in the middle). I appended that manually.

I think it solves both your issues, as the format is the same in both strings.

Am I correct?

If you still have any questions, please let me know.

 

[deepak]

Hi Jesse,
Thanks,but may u kindly transform this code to be in vb.net asi wanted it
into vb.net only
- Deepak

Hello deepak,

Hi All,

1. This is my string

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM
last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment only
ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM"

I want to extract all those dates in this(here count is 4) and wants
to change them in the format say 2008-02-19T09:45:00(FOR 2/19/2008
9:45:00 AM e.g.) and 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z(FOR 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM)
,means 24 hours time and then wants to store them in their postitions

like

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z
last comment only ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:45:00Z last comment only
ER_Kista / 2008-02-19T09:45:59 last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:47:00Z"

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

How is this possible?This string has many dates like above in the
sentence but format will remian same(i.e. m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss) so
solution should be general

Kindly help me

2. the other string wil be in the below format e.g. say

ER_Kista , 2/19/2008 9:47:50 PM

i want it to be printed as 2008-02-19T21:47:50Z

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

Kindly assist me.

Thanks in advande for your work on this issue,
Deepak

The following code does the trick:

======

private static readonly Regex rx = new Regex("[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{4}
[0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} (AM|PM)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);
private static string ReplaceDates(Match m)
{
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(m.Value, "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return date.ToString("s") + "Z";
}

string input = "The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 12/19/2008
8:37:00 PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 10:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM";
string output = rx.Replace(input, new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceDates));

======

The regex takes care of finding all occurances of a date/time string in your
original input text.

The MatchEvaluator is used to parse the dates (I used the exact format used
here to make sure it parses correctly).

Then I rewrote every match using the "s" for sortable datetime format. This
doesn't append the "Z" at the end (the u(niversal) format does that, but
that doesn't have the T in the middle). I appended that manually.

I think it solves both your issues, as the format is the same in both strings.

Am I correct?

If you still have any questions, please let me know.

 

[Jesse Houwing]

Hello deepak,

I'm no expert on VB.NET (lets just say the last time I wrote any VB was in
the VB6 era...) So I'm not your best help here.

Your original post didn't mention a target language, so I assumed you wanted
c#...

Which part are you having a problem with?

Jesse

Hi Jesse,
Thanks,but may u kindly transform this code to be in vb.net asi wanted
it
into vb.net only
- Deepak

Hello deepak,

Hi All,

1. This is my string

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2/19/2008 8:37:00
PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista /
2/19/2008 9:47:00 AM"

I want to extract all those dates in this(here count is 4) and wants
to change them in the format say 2008-02-19T09:45:00(FOR 2/19/2008
9:45:00 AM e.g.) and 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z(FOR 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM)
,means 24 hours time and then wants to store them in their
postitions

like

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti /
2008-02-19T20:37:00Z last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:45:00Z last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:45:59 last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:47:00Z"

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

How is this possible?This string has many dates like above in the
sentence but format will remian same(i.e. m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss) so
solution should be general

Kindly help me

2. the other string wil be in the below format e.g. say

ER_Kista , 2/19/2008 9:47:50 PM

i want it to be printed as 2008-02-19T21:47:50Z

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

Kindly assist me.

Thanks in advande for your work on this issue,
Deepak

The following code does the trick:

======

private static readonly Regex rx = new
Regex("[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{4}
[0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} (AM|PM)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase |
RegexOptions.Compiled);
private static string ReplaceDates(Match m)
{
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(m.Value, "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return date.ToString("s") + "Z";
}
string input = "The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti /
12/19/2008
8:37:00 PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last
comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 10:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista /
2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM";
string output = rx.Replace(input, new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceDates));
======

The regex takes care of finding all occurances of a date/time string
in your original input text.

The MatchEvaluator is used to parse the dates (I used the exact
format used here to make sure it parses correctly).

Then I rewrote every match using the "s" for sortable datetime
format. This doesn't append the "Z" at the end (the u(niversal)
format does that, but that doesn't have the T in the middle). I
appended that manually.

I think it solves both your issues, as the format is the same in both
strings.

Am I correct?

If you still have any questions, please let me know.

 

[Lars]

Yep, that is what I said. Date must be shown in format user understand.
It's just the guy Lars specifically said that date must be in format
YYYYMMDD. And you replied that it's ambiguous which is not after format
has been established.

George.

Thank you George.

Just think of all the dates written on food for example. What are real dates
of the following dates

08-07-07

07/08/08

02032008

02/03/2008


The last two are not the same date. For me as Swede and looking at Englsish
dates I always say the dates as February 02, 2008. Also probably the reason
the people with English as native language is so stubborn to keep the NON
standard of dates we other use.

But even European dates can be confusing as George pointed out. What is the
following date.

070308

Is it YYMMDD or DDMMYY. It's probably not MMDDYY since it then souwl be
written MM/DD/YY


I recomend you to use the following date form YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMYY since
you can sort the dates with that form. Do not use / since that implies that
you are using a US date format. Unless your page is strictly for US. But the
you have to transform the date sof sortig or converting.


Lars

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

But even European dates can be confusing as George pointed out. What is
the following date.

070308

Is it YYMMDD or DDMMYY. It's probably not MMDDYY since it then souwl be
written MM/DD/YY

I recomend you to use the following date form YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMYY since
you can sort the dates with that form.

The fact that you can sort dates is completely irrelevant if the dates
themselves are ambiguous... You can use any format you like to *store* dates
internally - but you absolutely must *present* them to the user in an
unambiguous way...

The fact that you are Swedish and I am British is also completely
irrelevant - it's a big old world out there...

There's no point in displaying 2008-02-03 on a public website if someone
from one country will understand it as 2nd March and someone from another
country will understand it as 3rd February

 

[Lars]

Hi Mark

Yes it's an old problem. How should you display a date. In my audio programs
I give my users the option to display the "English" dates or the "European"
dates. Two radio buttons where one says YYYY-MM-DD and one sayd MM/DD/YYYY.
That way the user knows how the date is displayed and at the same way he/she
can chose a way that is common to the user. I know it's abig world out
there. I have more millions of user out there for my audio programs. If you
are a European writing program for USA you should of course use MM/DD/YYYY.
As you say adapt to the market.

One way of presenting dates that are totaly clear is March 2, 2008 or 2008
March 2. It may look strange but by writing the month in words and the year
in four digits it's clear to the user wherever he/she comes from.

Lars

 

[Mark Rae [MVP]]

One way of presenting dates that are totaly clear is March 2, 2008 or 2008
March 2. It may look strange but by writing the month in words and the
year in four digits it's clear to the user wherever he/she comes from.

Yes, I know - see my first post in this thread...

 

[deepak]

Hi Jesse,
Its has been solved now, i chenged your code to VB.NET after some hours on
the same day and its working. Thanks a lot )

Thanks,
Deepak

Hello deepak,

I'm no expert on VB.NET (lets just say the last time I wrote any VB was in
the VB6 era...) So I'm not your best help here.

Your original post didn't mention a target language, so I assumed you wanted
c#...

Which part are you having a problem with?

Jesse

Hi Jesse,
Thanks,but may u kindly transform this code to be in vb.net asi wanted
it
into vb.net only
- Deepak

Hello deepak,

Hi All,

1. This is my string

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2/19/2008 8:37:00
PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista /
2/19/2008 9:47:00 AM"

I want to extract all those dates in this(here count is 4) and wants
to change them in the format say 2008-02-19T09:45:00(FOR 2/19/2008
9:45:00 AM e.g.) and 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z(FOR 2/19/2008 8:37:00 PM)
,means 24 hours time and then wants to store them in their
postitions

like

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti /
2008-02-19T20:37:00Z last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:45:00Z last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:45:59 last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:47:00Z"

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

How is this possible?This string has many dates like above in the
sentence but format will remian same(i.e. m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss) so
solution should be general

Kindly help me

2. the other string wil be in the below format e.g. say

ER_Kista , 2/19/2008 9:47:50 PM

i want it to be printed as 2008-02-19T21:47:50Z

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

Kindly assist me.

Thanks in advande for your work on this issue,
Deepak
The following code does the trick:

======

private static readonly Regex rx = new
Regex("[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{4}
[0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} (AM|PM)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase |
RegexOptions.Compiled);
private static string ReplaceDates(Match m)
{
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(m.Value, "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return date.ToString("s") + "Z";
}
string input = "The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti /
12/19/2008
8:37:00 PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last
comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 10:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista /
2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM";
string output = rx.Replace(input, new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceDates));
======

The regex takes care of finding all occurances of a date/time string
in your original input text.

The MatchEvaluator is used to parse the dates (I used the exact
format used here to make sure it parses correctly).

Then I rewrote every match using the "s" for sortable datetime
format. This doesn't append the "Z" at the end (the u(niversal)
format does that, but that doesn't have the T in the middle). I
appended that manually.

I think it solves both your issues, as the format is the same in both
strings.

Am I correct?

If you still have any questions, please let me know.

 

[Jesse Houwing]

Hello deepak,

Hi Jesse,
Its has been solved now, i chenged your code to VB.NET after some
hours on
the same day and its working. Thanks a lot )

Good to know!

Jesse

Hello deepak,

I'm no expert on VB.NET (lets just say the last time I wrote any VB
was in the VB6 era...) So I'm not your best help here.

Your original post didn't mention a target language, so I assumed you
wanted c#...

Which part are you having a problem with?

Jesse

Hi Jesse,
Thanks,but may u kindly transform this code to be in vb.net asi
wanted
it
into vb.net only
- Deepak
:
Hello deepak,

Hi All,

1. This is my string

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti / 2/19/2008 8:37:00
PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista /
2/19/2008 9:47:00 AM"

I want to extract all those dates in this(here count is 4) and
wants to change them in the format say 2008-02-19T09:45:00(FOR
2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM e.g.) and 2008-02-19T20:37:00Z(FOR 2/19/2008
8:37:00 PM) ,means 24 hours time and then wants to store them in
their postitions

like

"The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti /
2008-02-19T20:37:00Z last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:45:00Z last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:45:59 last comment only ER_Kista /
2008-02-19T09:47:00Z"
Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

How is this possible?This string has many dates like above in the
sentence but format will remian same(i.e. m/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss) so
solution should be general

Kindly help me

2. the other string wil be in the below format e.g. say

ER_Kista , 2/19/2008 9:47:50 PM

i want it to be printed as 2008-02-19T21:47:50Z

Where T and Z are just a aplphabet which needs to be concat.

Kindly assist me.

Thanks in advande for your work on this issue,
Deepak
The following code does the trick:

======

private static readonly Regex rx = new
Regex("[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{1,2}/[0-9]{4}
[0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} (AM|PM)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase |
RegexOptions.Compiled);
private static string ReplaceDates(Match m)
{
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(m.Value, "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return date.ToString("s") + "Z";
}
string input = "The description of the problem ERIndia_Bharti /
12/19/2008
8:37:00 PM last comment only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 9:45:00 AM last
comment
only ER_Kista / 2/19/2008 10:45:59 AM last comment only ER_Kista /
2/19/2008
9:47:00 AM";
string output = rx.Replace(input, new
MatchEvaluator(ReplaceDates));
======
The regex takes care of finding all occurances of a date/time
string in your original input text.

The MatchEvaluator is used to parse the dates (I used the exact
format used here to make sure it parses correctly).

Then I rewrote every match using the "s" for sortable datetime
format. This doesn't append the "Z" at the end (the u(niversal)
format does that, but that doesn't have the T in the middle). I
appended that manually.

I think it solves both your issues, as the format is the same in
both strings.

Am I correct?

If you still have any questions, please let me know.