Question

I’m trying to make my string a nice formatted time but the column in the database isn’t set up as a date/time field is there anyway I can do this?

Here’s my query

Dim query as String = "Select * from openquery (devbook, 'SELECT wb.arrival_time FROM web_bookings wb ')"

And here’s where i’m converting it

Session("formattime") = DateTime.Parse(drv.Row("arrival_time")).ToString("hh:mm")

The arrival_time field only has 4 numbers in like this 1000 so I need a way of converting it to a nice format like this 10:00AM

I’m using VB by the way

Any ideas?

Thanks

Jamie

Answer 1

How about:

string str = "1000";//drv.Row("arrival_time")
string[] formats = new string[] { "HHmm" };
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(str, formats,
                                    System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                                    System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal);
string strTime = dt.ToShortTimeString();

DateTime dte = DateTime.Now;
IFormatProvider culture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB", true);

VB.NET

Dim str As String = "1000" 'drv.Row("arrival_time")
Dim formats As String() = New String() {"HHmm"}
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(str, formats, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal)
Dim strTime As String = dt.ToShortTimeString()

Dim dte As DateTime = DateTime.Now
Dim culture As IFormatProvider = New System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB", True)

Outputs:

10:00 AM

Alternatively, if you plan on using that frequently, you might want to add that as an extension method.

public static class Extensions
{
    public static string ToTime(this string str)
    {
        DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
        try
        {
            string[] formats = new string[] { "HHmm" };
            dt = DateTime.ParseExact(str, formats,
                                                System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                                                System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal);
        }
        catch
        { throw new Exception("Invalid data"); }
        return dt.ToShortTimeString();
    }
}

–VB.NET–

Public NotInheritable Class Extensions
    Private Sub New()
    End Sub
    <System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension> _
    Public Shared Function ToTime(str As String) As String
        Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Now
        Try
            Dim formats As String() = New String() {"HHmm"}
            dt = DateTime.ParseExact(str, formats, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal)
        Catch
            Throw New Exception("Invalid data")
        End Try
        Return dt.ToShortTimeString()
    End Function
End Class

Example:

string str = "13000";//drv.Row("arrival_time")
string strTime = str.ToTime();

VB.NET

Dim str As String = "13000"
'drv.Row("arrival_time")
Dim strTime As String = str.ToTime()

Anything bad in the data will throw you an exception.

–EDIT–

Works fine in VB.NET.