Formatting Date Time

In article <1171662290.300441.85720 DeleteThis @v45g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>,
asimon623 DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:

> Hi, im trying to generate a unique id for each record which are coming
> from multiple sources into a single DB
>
> I figured the best way would be to just do yeardatetime, but i want to
> be able to sort with this number. The problem is that say, February
> 27 looks bigger than March 8th, (227 vs 38)
> I can't figure out how to format the numbers to get single digit
> months and dates to get a 0 in front. I m pretty new to filemaker. I
> dont know if i have to do some sort of switch statement or if there's
> an easy way.
>

I use a cal field given by:
Let ( [time = Right("0"&
Hour(Get(CurrentTime));2)&Right("0"&Minute(Get(CurrentTime));2)&Right("0"
&Seconds(Get(CurrentTime));2);
date = Right( "0" & Month ( Get ( CurrentDate ) );2) & Right("0"&Day (
Get ( CurrentDate ) );2) & Year ( Get ( CurrentDate ) );
string = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"];
Get ( RecordID ) & " " & Middle ( string ; Round ( Random*35 ; 0 ) ; 1 )
&" "& time & " " & Middle ( string ; Round ( Random*35 ; 0 ) ; 1 ) &" "
& date )

The result looks like
11738 S 141324 A 09272004

You can easily drop the RecodID and the two "random" characters and just
leave the time and date.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3
7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time 

On Feb 16, 2007 asimon623 DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:

> Hi, im trying to generate a unique id for each record which are coming
> from multiple sources into a single DB

Hi

I haven't used Filemaker Pro for very many years. There is a newsgroup
for Filemaker Pro:

comp.databases.filemaker

I have never tried it, but if you don't get a decent answer here then
maybe someone will be able to come up with something there.



--
Patrick
Brighton, UK

<http://www.patrickjames.me.uk>
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time 

On Feb 16, 5:20 pm, Tom Stiller <tomstil....DeleteThis@comcast.net> wrote:
> In article <1171662290.300441.85....DeleteThis@v45g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>,
>
> asimon....DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:
> > Hi, im trying to generate a unique id for each record which are coming
> > from multiple sources into a single DB
>
> > I figured the best way would be to just do yeardatetime, but i want to
> > be able to sort with this number. The problem is that say, February
> > 27 looks bigger than March 8th, (227 vs 38)
> > I can't figure out how to format the numbers to get single digit
> > months and dates to get a 0 in front. I m pretty new to filemaker. I
> > dont know if i have to do some sort of switch statement or if there's
> > an easy way.
>
> I use a cal field given by:
> Let ( [time = Right("0"&
> Hour(Get(CurrentTime));2)&Right("0"&Minute(Get(CurrentTime));2)&Right("0"
> &Seconds(Get(CurrentTime));2);
> date = Right( "0" & Month ( Get ( CurrentDate ) );2) & Right("0"&Day (
> Get ( CurrentDate ) );2) & Year ( Get ( CurrentDate ) );
> string = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"];
> Get ( RecordID ) & " " & Middle ( string ; Round ( Random*35 ; 0 ) ; 1 )
> &" "& time & " " & Middle ( string ; Round ( Random*35 ; 0 ) ; 1 ) &" "
> & date )
>
> The result looks like
> 11738 S 141324 A 09272004
>
> You can easily drop the RecodID and the two "random" characters and just
> leave the time and date.
>
> --
> Tom Stiller
>
> PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3
> 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

This is helpful, but i'm terrible at filemaker
I just need to have YearDateTime
With Date having four digits (0217 for today), and Time being in 24
hour time
It would be a great help thanks alot
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time 

In article <1171748188.182403.173300.RemoveThis@a75g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
asimon623.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:

> On Feb 16, 5:20 pm, Tom Stiller <tomstil....RemoveThis@comcast.net> wrote:
> > In article <1171662290.300441.85....RemoveThis@v45g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>,
> >
> > asimon....RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
> > > Hi, im trying to generate a unique id for each record which are coming
> > > from multiple sources into a single DB
> >
> > > I figured the best way would be to just do yeardatetime, but i want to
> > > be able to sort with this number. The problem is that say, February
> > > 27 looks bigger than March 8th, (227 vs 38)
> > > I can't figure out how to format the numbers to get single digit
> > > months and dates to get a 0 in front. I m pretty new to filemaker. I
> > > dont know if i have to do some sort of switch statement or if there's
> > > an easy way.
> >
> > I use a calc field given by:
> > Let ( [time = Right("0"&
> > Hour(Get(CurrentTime));2)&Right("0"&Minute(Get(CurrentTime));2)&Right("0"
> > &Seconds(Get(CurrentTime));2);
> > date = Right( "0" & Month ( Get ( CurrentDate ) );2) & Right("0"&Day (
> > Get ( CurrentDate ) );2) & Year ( Get ( CurrentDate ) );
> > string = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"];
> > Get ( RecordID ) & " " & Middle ( string ; Round ( Random*35 ; 0 ) ; 1 )
> > &" "& time & " " & Middle ( string ; Round ( Random*35 ; 0 ) ; 1 ) &" "
> > & date )
> >
> > The result looks like
> > 11738 S 141324 A 09272004
> >
> > You can easily drop the RecodID and the two "random" characters and just
> > leave the time and date.
> >
> This is helpful, but i'm terrible at filemaker I just need to have
> YearDateTime With Date having four digits (0217 for today), and Time
> being in 24 hour time It would be a great help thanks alot

Clue: Right("0"&Hour(Get(CurrentTime));2) gets the zero-filled two
digit value for the current hour.

Filemaker's "Help" system is quite good.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3
7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time 

In article <1171662290.300441.85720 DeleteThis @v45g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>,
<asimon623 DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi, im trying to generate a unique id for each record which are coming
>from multiple sources into a single DB
>
>I figured the best way would be to just do yeardatetime, but i want to
>be able to sort with this number. The problem is that say, February
>27 looks bigger than March 8th, (227 vs 38)
>I can't figure out how to format the numbers to get single digit
>months and dates to get a 0 in front. I m pretty new to filemaker. I
>dont know if i have to do some sort of switch statement or if there's
>an easy way.

Isn't the normal way to do unique identifiers in a database table to
have an autoincrementing column which provides them automatically? I
don't know whether FileMaker can do this.

Tim
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time 

In article <1171748188.182403.173300 RemoveThis @a75g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
asimon623 RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:

> > asimon... RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> > > Hi, im trying to generate a unique id for each record which are coming
> > > from multiple sources into a single DB
> >
> > > I figured the best way would be to just do yeardatetime, but i want to
> > > be able to sort with this number.
[...]
> This is helpful, but i'm terrible at filemaker
> I just need to have YearDateTime
> With Date having four digits (0217 for today), and Time being in 24
> hour time
> It would be a great help thanks alot

You want an auto-filled Timestamp field.

Create a new field and set its type to "Timestamp". Keep that field
selected, click on Options, and click the Auto-Enter tab. Check the
"Creation" box; the popup next to it will say "Timestamp (Date and Time)".
Check the "Prohibit modification" box so that the field's value can't be
edited.

Whenever you create a new record, the current date and time will be stored
in that field.

A simpler option is to define the field as type "Number", and in the
Auto-Enter options, select Serial Number, Generate On Creation. FileMaker
will automatically assign a unique number to each record when it's created.
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time 

In article
<wayne.morris-D10A60.12293422022007 DeleteThis @shawnews.wp.shawcable.net>,
"Wayne C. Morris" <wayne.morris DeleteThis @this.is.invalid> wrote:

> In article <1171748188.182403.173300 DeleteThis @a75g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>,
> asimon623 DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
>
> > > asimon... DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
> > > > Hi, im trying to generate a unique id for each record which are coming
> > > > from multiple sources into a single DB
> > >
> > > > I figured the best way would be to just do yeardatetime, but i want to
> > > > be able to sort with this number.
> [...]
> > This is helpful, but i'm terrible at filemaker
> > I just need to have YearDateTime
> > With Date having four digits (0217 for today), and Time being in 24
> > hour time
> > It would be a great help thanks alot
>
> You want an auto-filled Timestamp field.
>
> Create a new field and set its type to "Timestamp". Keep that field
> selected, click on Options, and click the Auto-Enter tab. Check the
> "Creation" box; the popup next to it will say "Timestamp (Date and Time)".
> Check the "Prohibit modification" box so that the field's value can't be
> edited.
>
> Whenever you create a new record, the current date and time will be stored
> in that field.
>
> A simpler option is to define the field as type "Number", and in the
> Auto-Enter options, select Serial Number, Generate On Creation. FileMaker
> will automatically assign a unique number to each record when it's created.

Wayne's suggestions are very good ones, but perhaps there is something
even easier.

I missed the beginning of this thread, but if all you want is a unique
sequential numerical identifier (i.e. you're not going to do anything
with the number except use it as a sort mechanism or unique
identifier--you're not going to try to extract a date or time from it),
why not use the record ID which is built into every record. It's unique
to each table and sequential. If a record is deleted, its ID is not
reused.

To use the record ID, create a calculation field of type number. Set it
to equal Get(RecordID) and index it in case you want to use it to find a
specific record you had been using. And it's just that easy!

--Fred
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time 

Fred, I can't do that because the records are coming from about ten
different sources.


Right("0"&Year(Get(CurrentDate));2)&
Right("0"&Month(Get(CurrentDate));2)&
Right("0"&Day(Get(CurrentDate));2)&Right
("0"&Hour(Get(CurrentTime));2)&Right("0"&Minute(Get(CurrentTime));
2)&Right("0"&Seconds(Get(CurrentTime));2)

Was my answer by the way thanks

I don't know if that is the right way to do that, but it worked haha
 >> Stay informed about: Formatting Date Time