Question

How can I display am or PM with a time display in informix 4GL. In my database the field called crttime_a_p and stores for am “A” and for pm “P”. How can I display this in my application as “AM” or “PM”. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

You’ll need to map the database values (‘A’ ⟶ ‘AM’, ‘P’ ⟶ ‘PM’) and display the mapped value to a FORMONLY field. The field can be used for input if you want. You can add form attributes such as UPSHIFT, AUTONEXT, INCLUDE = ('AM', 'PM') to the field in the form. You just won’t be able to use the RECORD LIKE Table.* notation because the field in the DB is CHAR(1) but you need CHAR(2) for display and input.

More seriously, you’ll need to consider whether you have to futz with associated time field. If it is a DATETIME field, the time will be in 24 hour notation, and the conversion from 24 hour to AM/PM notation is not entirely straight-forward. Hint: 00:01:02 in 24 hour clock is 12:01:02 AM; 12:02:03 in 24 hour notation is 12:02:03 PM, but 13:03:04 in 24 hour is 1:02:03 PM in AM/PM notation (usually without the leading zero on the hours). See also Converting 24-hour military time to AM/PM time.

If the time field is simply a string, then you probably don’t have these problems, but you’ll want to design your form carefully to only accept numeric characters (attributes FORMAT and PICTURE?).