Validate a real date - delphi

Is there some function that can validate a date in format aaaa/mm/gg (ccyy/mm/dd) returning True if it is valid or False otherwise? I mean about really valid date, not only to level to syntax.

Is 'aaaa' year and 'gg' day?
var
MyString: string;
MyDate: TDateTime;
settings: TFormatSettings;
begin
settings.ShortDateFormat := 'yyyy/mm/dd';
settings.DateSeparator := '/';
MyString := '2011/15/15';
if TryStrToDateTime(MyString, MyDate, settings) then
Label1.Caption := 'correct date'
else
Label1.Caption := 'incorrect';
end;

This is very fast, because the most simple errors are caught first.
function IsValidDate(const S: string): boolean;
var
y, m, d: Integer;
const
DAYS_OF_MONTH: array[1..12] of integer = (31, 29, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30,
31, 30, 31);
begin
result := false;
if length(S) <> 10 then Exit;
if (S[5] <> '/') or (S[8] <> '/') then Exit;
if not TryStrToInt(Copy(S, 1, 4), y) then Exit;
if not TryStrToInt(Copy(S, 6, 2), m) then Exit;
if not InRange(m, 1, 12) then Exit;
if not TryStrToInt(Copy(S, 9, 2), d) then Exit;
if not InRange(d, 1, DAYS_OF_MONTH[m]) then Exit;
if (not IsLeapYear(y)) and (m = 2) and (d = 29) then Exit;
result := true;
end;

Use the overloaded version of StrToDate() that has a TFormatSettings parameter. Then you can pass in the desired format string for parsing, and it will return a TDateTime after validating the parsed values.

Trying to do the same thing and ran across this old thread. I ended up writing my own function and thought that I'd post it. How about this?
function IsValidDate(const S: string): boolean;
var TestDate : tdatetime;
begin
Result := False;
if (LastDelimiter('/',S) >= 4)
and
(Length(S)-LastDelimiter('/',S) >= 4)
then
Result := TryStrToDate(S,TestDate);
end;
First off, I check to see if the second delimiter (/) is at least out there far enough to represent both a day and a month (4th position). I then force a 4 digit year on them with the next line. Change this second test to >=2 for a two digit, but I just figure that it's not so bad to force a four digit year - it's only two more strokes.
Finally, I test with TryStrToDate(). If there is only one delimiter, or if it's not a valid date, it will be caught here.
If you wanted to get fancy, you could check if the year was within the last 10 years or something as well. Just add:
Result := Result and (Now - TestDate < 3650);
Dave

Related

Subtract two TDATETIME variables in Delphi and return the result in minutes

I have two TDateTime variables, like this:
s := StrToDateTime('03/03/2017 10:10:12');
e := StrToDateTime('04/04/2017 10:10:12');
I need to find out the difference between them, in hh:mm:ss format.
The ...Between() functions are not helping me here.
Use the DateUtils.SecondsBetween function:
Uses
DateUtils,SysUtils;
function TimeDiffStr(const s1,s2: String): String;
var
t1,t2: TDateTime;
secs: Int64;
begin
t1 := StrToDateTime(s1);
t2 := StrToDateTime(s2);
secs := SecondsBetween(t1,t2);
Result := Format('%2.2d:%2.2d:%2.2d',[secs div SecsPerHour,(secs div SecsPerMin) mod SecPerMin,secs mod SecsPerMin]);
end;
begin
WriteLn(TimeDiffStr('03/03/2017 10:10:12','04/04/2017 10:10:12'));
ReadLn;
end.
From the number of seconds, calculate the hours,minutes and remaining seconds.
If you want the difference in minutes, use the DateUtils.MinutesBetween function:
function TimeDiffStr(const s1,s2: String): String;
var
t1,t2: TDateTime;
minutes: Int64;
begin
t1 := StrToDateTime(s1);
t2 := StrToDateTime(s2);
minutes := MinutesBetween(t1,t2);
Result := Format('%2.2d:%2.2d:%2.2d',[minutes div MinsPerHour,minutes mod MinsPerHour,0]);
end;
You can use TTimeSpan (from the System.TimeSpan unit).
program Project1;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
System.SysUtils, System.TimeSpan;
var
StartDate, EndDate: TDateTime;
TS: TTimeSpan;
Temp: string;
begin
StartDate := StrToDateTime('03/03/2017 10:10:12');
EndDate := StrToDateTime('04/04/2017 10:10:12');
TS := TTimeSpan.Subtract(EndDate, StartDate);
Temp := TS;
WriteLn(Temp); // Outputs 32.00:00:00
// The next line outputs the same as the one above
WriteLn(Format('%.2d:%.2d:%.2d:%.2d', [TS.Days, TS.Hours, TS.Minutes, TS.Seconds]));
WriteLn(TS.TotalMinutes); // Outputs 4.60800000000000E+0004
WriteLn(Trunc(TS.TotalMinutes)); // Outputs 46080
// This one will give the output you want (768:00:00)
WriteLn(Format('%.2d:%.2d:%.2d', [TS.Days * 24 + TS.Hours, TS.Minutes, TS.Seconds]));
ReadLn;
end.
First off, don't use hard-coded strings for date/time values. That is subject to localization issues, and it is just wasted overhead anyway. Use the SysUtils.EncodeDate() and SysUtils.EncodeTime() functions, or the DateUtils.EncodeDateTime() function.
Second, the ...Between() functions can indeed be usedneed, in particular SecondsBetween(). You can calculate the individual components from that return value.
Try something like this:
uses
..., SysUtils, DateUtils;
var
s, e: TDateTime;
diff: Int64;
days, hours, mins, secs: Integer;
s: string;
begin
s := EncodeDateTime(2017, 3, 3, 10, 10, 12, 0);
e := EncodeDateTime(2017, 4, 4, 10, 10, 12, 0);
diff := SecondsBetween(e, s);
days := diff div SecsPerDay;
diff := diff mod SecsPerDay;
hours := diff div SecsPerHour;
diff := diff mod SecsPerHour;
mins := diff div SecsPerMin;
diff := diff mod SecsPerMin;
secs := diff;
s := Format('%d:%d:%d:%d', [days, hours, mins, secs]);
end;

Is there a Delphi RTL function that can convert the ISO 8601 basic date format to a TDate?

ISO 8601 describes a so called basic date format that does not use the dashes:
20140507 is a valid representation of the more readable 2014-05-07.
Is there a Delphi RTL function that can interpret that basic format and convert it to a TDateTime value?
I tried
function TryIso2Date(const _s: string; out _Date: TDateTime): Boolean;
var
Settings: TFormatSettings;
begin
Settings := GetUserDefaultLocaleSettings;
Settings.DateSeparator := #0;
Settings.ShortDateFormat := 'yyyymmdd';
Result := TryStrToDate(_s, Date, Settings);
end;
TryIso2Date('20140507', dt);
but it did not work because the DateSeparator could not be found in the string.
The only solution I so far came up with (other than writing the parsing code myself) is adding the missing dashes before calling TryStrToDate:
function TryIso2Date(const _s: string; out _Date: TDateTime): Boolean;
var
Settings: TFormatSettings;
s: string;
begin
Settings := GetUserDefaultLocaleSettings;
Settings.DateSeparator := #0;
Settings.ShortDateFormat := 'yyyy-mm-dd';
s := Copy(_s,1,4) + '-' + Copy(_s, 5,2) + '-' + Copy(_s, 7);
Result := TryStrToDate(_s, Date, Settings);
end;
TryIso2Date('20140507', dt);
This works, but it feels rather clumsy.
This is Delphi XE6, so it should have the most recent RTL possible.
You can use Copy to pull out the values as you already do. And then you just need to encode the date:
function TryIso8601BasicToDate(const Str: string; out Date: TDateTime): Boolean;
var
Year, Month, Day: Integer;
begin
Assert(Length(Str)=8);
Result := TryStrToInt(Copy(Str, 1, 4), Year);
if not Result then
exit;
Result := TryStrToInt(Copy(Str, 5, 2), Month);
if not Result then
exit;
Result := TryStrToInt(Copy(Str, 7, 2), Day);
if not Result then
exit;
Result := TryEncodeDate(Year, Month, Day, Date);
end;

Delphi, String to date conversion [duplicate]

Is there any way in Delphi 5 to convert a string to a TDateTime where you can specify the actual format to use?
I'm working on a jobprocessor, which accepts tasks from various workstations. The tasks have a range of parameters, some of which are dates, but (unfortunately, and out of my control) they're passed as strings. Since the jobs can come from different workstations, the actual datetime format used to format the dates as a string might (and, of course, actual do) differ.
Googling around, the only quick solutions I found was to sneakily change the ShortDateFormat variable, and restore it to its original value afterwards. Since ShortDateFormat is a global variable, and I'm working in a threaded environment the only way this would work is by synchronizing every access to it, which is completely unacceptable (and undoable).
I could copy the library code from the SysUtils unit into my own methods, and tweak them to work with a specified format instead of the global variables, but I'm just wondering if there's something more adequate out there that I missed.
UPDATE
To put it more succinctly:
I need something like StrToDate (or StrToDateTime), with the added option of specifying the exact format it should use to convert the string to a TDateTime.
Use VarToDateTime instead. It supports many more date formats in the string and converts them automatically.
var
DateVal: TDateTime;
begin
DateVal := VarToDateTime('23 Sep 2010');
ShowMessage(DateToStr(DateVal));
end;
I see you're using Delphi 5. Some versions of Delphi will need to add Variants to the uses clause; most later versions add it for you. I don't remember which category Delphi 5 fell into.
I created such routine for FreePascal's dateutils unit, and it should easy to port, if porting is needed at all.
Code:
http://svn.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/packages/rtl-objpas/src/inc/dateutil.inc?revision=30628&view=co
(code is the last (huge) procedure at the end of the file)
documentation:
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/dateutils/scandatetime.html
Note that it is not a complete inverse of formatdatetime, and it has some extensions:
An inverse of FormatDateTime is not 100% an inverse, simply because one can put e.g. time tokens twice in the format string,and scandatetime wouldn't know which time to pick.
Strings like hn can't be reversed safely. E.g. 1:2 (2 minutes after 1) delivers 12 which is parsed as 12:00 and then
misses chars for the "n" part.
trailing characters are ignored.
no support for Eastern Asian formatting characters since they are windows only.
no MBCS support.
Extensions
#9 eats whitespace.
whitespace at the end of a pattern is optional.
? matches any char.
Quote the above chars to really match the char.
(I believe these comments are slightly outdated in the sense hat some Asian support was added later but I am not sure)
Later versions of Delphi can take an extra TFormatSettings argument to the string conversion functions. TFormatSettings is a structure containing the various format global variables (ShortDateFormat, LongDateFormat, etc). So you can override those value in a thread-safe manner and even for a single call.
I don't remember in which version of Delphi this was introduced, but I'm pretty sure it was after Delphi 5.
So yeah, as far as I know, you either need to synchronize every access to ShortDateFormat, or use a different function.
Here's the function, its two helpers, and all the code, I wrote to parse a string using an exact datetime format:
class function TDateTimeUtils.TryStrToDateExact(const S, DateFormat: string; PivotYear: Integer;
out Value: TDateTime): Boolean;
var
Month, Day, Year: Integer;
Tokens: TStringDynArray;
CurrentToken: string;
i, n: Integer;
Partial: string;
MaxValue: Integer;
nCurrentYear: Integer;
function GetCurrentYear: Word;
var
y, m, d: Word;
begin
DecodeDate(Now, y, m, d);
Result := y;
end;
begin
Result := False;
{
M/dd/yy
Valid pictures codes are
d Day of the month as digits without leading zeros for single-digit days.
dd Day of the month as digits with leading zeros for single-digit days.
ddd Abbreviated day of the week as specified by a LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME* value, for example, "Mon" in English (United States).
Windows Vista and later: If a short version of the day of the week is required, your application should use the LOCALE_SSHORTESTDAYNAME* constants.
dddd Day of the week as specified by a LOCALE_SDAYNAME* value.
M Month as digits without leading zeros for single-digit months.
MM Month as digits with leading zeros for single-digit months.
MMM Abbreviated month as specified by a LOCALE_SABBREVMONTHNAME* value, for example, "Nov" in English (United States).
MMMM Month as specified by a LOCALE_SMONTHNAME* value, for example, "November" for English (United States), and "Noviembre" for Spanish (Spain).
y Year represented only by the last digit.
yy Year represented only by the last two digits. A leading zero is added for single-digit years.
yyyy Year represented by a full four or five digits, depending on the calendar used. Thai Buddhist and Korean calendars have five-digit years. The "yyyy" pattern shows five digits for these two calendars, and four digits for all other supported calendars. Calendars that have single-digit or two-digit years, such as for the Japanese Emperor era, are represented differently. A single-digit year is represented with a leading zero, for example, "03". A two-digit year is represented with two digits, for example, "13". No additional leading zeros are displayed.
yyyyy Behaves identically to "yyyy".
g, gg Period/era string formatted as specified by the CAL_SERASTRING value.
The "g" and "gg" format pictures in a date string are ignored if there is no associated era or period string.
PivotYear
The maximum year that a 1 or 2 digit year is assumed to be.
The Microsoft de-factor standard for y2k is 2029. Any value greater
than 29 is assumed to be 1930 or higher.
e.g. 2029:
1930, ..., 2000, 2001,..., 2029
If the PivotYear is between 0 and 99, then PivotYear is assumed to be
a date range in the future. e.g. (assuming this is currently 2010):
Pivot Range
0 1911..2010 (no future years)
1 1912..2011
...
98 2009..2108
99 2010..2099 (no past years)
0 ==> no years in the future
99 ==> no years in the past
}
if Length(S) = 0 then
Exit;
if Length(DateFormat) = 0 then
Exit;
Month := -1;
Day := -1;
Year := -1;
Tokens := TDateTimeUtils.TokenizeFormat(DateFormat);
n := 1; //input string index
for i := Low(Tokens) to High(Tokens) do
begin
CurrentToken := Tokens[i];
if CurrentToken = 'MMMM' then
begin
//Long month names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it)
Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'MMM' then
begin
//Short month names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it)
Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'MM' then
begin
//Month, with leading zero if needed
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 2{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, 12{MaxValue}, {var}Month) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'M' then
begin
//months
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 1{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, 12{MaxValue}, {var}Month) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'dddd' then
begin
Exit; //Long day names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it)
end
else if CurrentToken = 'ddd' then
begin
Exit; //Short day names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it);
end
else if CurrentToken = 'dd' then
begin
//If we know what month it is, and even better if we know what year it is, limit the number of valid days to that
if (Month >= 1) and (Month <= 12) then
begin
if Year > 0 then
MaxValue := MonthDays[IsLeapYear(Year), Month]
else
MaxValue := MonthDays[True, Month]; //we don't know the year, assume it's a leap year to be more generous
end
else
MaxValue := 31; //we don't know the month, so assume it's the largest
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 2{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, MaxValue{MaxValue}, {var}Day) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'd' then
begin
//days
//If we know what month it is, and even better if we know what year it is, limit the number of valid days to that
if (Month >= 1) and (Month <= 12) then
begin
if Year > 0 then
MaxValue := MonthDays[IsLeapYear(Year), Month]
else
MaxValue := MonthDays[True, Month]; //we don't know the year, assume it's a leap year to be more generous
end
else
MaxValue := 31; //we don't know the month, so assume it's the largest
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 1{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, MaxValue{MaxValue}, {var}Day) then Exit;
end
else if (CurrentToken = 'yyyy') or (CurrentToken = 'yyyyy') then
begin
//Year represented by a full four or five digits, depending on the calendar used.
{
Thai Buddhist and Korean calendars have five-digit years.
The "yyyy" pattern shows five digits for these two calendars,
and four digits for all other supported calendars.
Calendars that have single-digit or two-digit years, such as for
the Japanese Emperor era, are represented differently.
A single-digit year is represented with a leading zero, for
example, "03". A two-digit year is represented with two digits,
for example, "13". No additional leading zeros are displayed.
}
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 4{MinDigits}, 4{MaxDigits}, 0{MinValue}, 9999{MaxValue}, {var}Year) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'yyy' then
begin
//i'm not sure what this would look like, so i'll ignore it
Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'yy' then
begin
//Year represented only by the last two digits. A leading zero is added for single-digit years.
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 2{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 0{MinValue}, 99{MaxValue}, {var}Year) then Exit;
nCurrentYear := GetCurrentYear;
Year := (nCurrentYear div 100 * 100)+Year;
if (PivotYear < 100) and (PivotYear >= 0) then
begin
//assume pivotyear is a delta from this year, not an absolute value
PivotYear := nCurrentYear+PivotYear;
end;
//Check the pivot year value
if Year > PivotYear then
Year := Year - 100;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'y' then
begin
//Year represented only by the last digit.
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 1{MinDigits}, 1{MaxDigits}, 0{MinValue}, 9{MaxValue}, {var}Year) then Exit;
nCurrentYear := GetCurrentYear;
Year := (nCurrentYear div 10 * 10)+Year;
if (PivotYear < 100) and (PivotYear >= 0) then
begin
//assume pivotyear is a delta from this year, not an absolute value
PivotYear := nCurrentYear+PivotYear;
end;
//Check the pivot year value
if Year > PivotYear then
Year := Year - 100;
end
else
begin
//The input string should contains CurrentToken starting at n
Partial := Copy(S, n, Length(CurrentToken));
Inc(n, Length(CurrentToken));
if Partial <> CurrentToken then
Exit;
end;
end;
//If there's still stuff left over in the string, then it's not valid
if n <> Length(s)+1 then
begin
Result := False;
Exit;
end;
if Day > MonthDays[IsLeapYear(Year), Month] then
begin
Result := False;
Exit;
end;
try
Value := EncodeDate(Year, Month, Day);
except
Result := False;
Exit;
end;
Result := True;
end;
class function TDateTimeUtils.TokenizeFormat(fmt: string): TStringDynArray;
var
i: Integer;
partial: string;
function IsDateFormatPicture(ch: AnsiChar): Boolean;
begin
case ch of
'M','d','y': Result := True;
else Result := False;
end;
end;
begin
SetLength(Result, 0);
if Length(fmt) = 0 then
Exit;
//format is only one character long? If so then that's the tokenized entry
if Length(fmt)=1 then
begin
SetLength(Result, 1);
Result[0] := fmt;
end;
partial := fmt[1];
i := 2;
while i <= Length(fmt) do
begin
//If the characters in partial are a format picture, and the character in fmt is not the same picture code then write partial to result, and reset partial
if IsDateFormatPicture(partial[1]) then
begin
//if the current fmt character is different than the running partial picture
if (partial[1] <> fmt[i]) then
begin
//Move the current partial to the output
//and start a new partial
SetLength(Result, Length(Result)+1);
Result[High(Result)] := partial;
Partial := fmt[i];
end
else
begin
//the current fmt character is more of the same format picture in partial
//Add it to the partial
Partial := Partial + fmt[i];
end;
end
else
begin
//The running partial is not a format picture.
//If the current fmt character is a picture code, then write out the partial and start a new partial
if IsDateFormatPicture(fmt[i]) then
begin
//Move the current partial to the output
//and start a new partial
SetLength(Result, Length(Result)+1);
Result[High(Result)] := partial;
Partial := fmt[i];
end
else
begin
//The current fmt character is another non-picture code. Add it to the running partial
Partial := Partial + fmt[i];
end;
end;
Inc(i);
Continue;
end;
//If we have a running partial, then add it to the output
if partial <> '' then
begin
SetLength(Result, Length(Result)+1);
Result[High(Result)] := partial;
end;
end;
class function TDateTimeUtils.ReadDigitString(const S: string; var Pos: Integer;
MinDigits, MaxDigits: Integer; MinValue, MaxValue: Integer;
var Number: Integer): Boolean;
var
Digits: Integer;
Value: Integer;
Partial: string;
CandidateNumber: Integer;
CandidateDigits: Integer;
begin
Result := False;
CandidateNumber := -1;
CandidateDigits := 0;
Digits := MinDigits;
while Digits <= MaxDigits do
begin
Partial := Copy(S, Pos, Digits);
if Length(Partial) < Digits then
begin
//we couldn't get all we wanted. We're done; use whatever we've gotten already
Break;
end;
//Check that it's still a number
if not TryStrToInt(Partial, Value) then
Break;
//Check that it's not too big - meaning that getting anymore wouldn't work
if (Value > MaxValue) then
Break;
if (Value >= MinValue) then
begin
//Hmm, looks good. Keep it as our best possibility
CandidateNumber := Value;
CandidateDigits := Digits;
end;
Inc(Digits); //try to be greedy, grabbing even *MORE* digits
end;
if (CandidateNumber >= 0) or (CandidateDigits > 0) then
begin
Inc(Pos, CandidateDigits);
Number := CandidateNumber;
Result := True;
end;
end;
If you want to know how this was solved in later Delphi's, you can take a look at the source of a slightly more modern (looks like Delphi 6) sysutils.pas here:
http://anygen.googlecome.com/.../SysUtils.pas
Check out the overloaded versions of StrToDateTime that take a TFormatSettings parameter.
function StrToDateTime(const S: string;
const FormatSettings: TFormatSettings): TDateTime; overload;
Use RegExpr library (https://github.com/masterandrey/TRegExpr)
var
RE: TRegExpr;
begin
RE := TRegExpr.Create;
try
RE.Expression := '^(\d\d\d\d)/(\d\d)/(\d\d)T(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d\d)$';
if RE.Exec( Value ) then
begin
try
Result := EncodeDate( StrToInt( RE.Match[1] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[2] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[3] ) ) +
EncodeTime( StrToInt( RE.Match[4] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[5] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[6] ),
0 )
except
raise EConvertError.Create( 'Invalid date-time: ' + Value )
end
end
else
raise EConvertError.Create( 'Bad format: ' + Value )
finally
RE.Free
end
end;
I am not sure about what you want. I don't use Delphi 5 any more but I am pretty sure the function StrToDateTime exists in it. Using it you can convert a string to TDateTime with format settings. Then you can convert such TDateTime to any format using FormatDateTime which enables you to use any date format you wish.
I would go the other way around it. As I see it, you have about two options of wich you mentioned one yourself
Adjust the ShortDateFormat and keep every acces to it synchronized.
If you know the format of the strings you are recieving (somehow, you'll have to), just do some string juggling to first get your strings in your current shortdateformat. After that, convert the (juggled) string to a TDateTime.
I do wonder how you are going to determine the format for say 04/05/2010.
program DateTimeConvert;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
SysUtils;
function GetPart(const part, input, format: string): string;
var
I: Integer;
begin
for I := 1 to Length(format) do
if Uppercase(format[I]) = Uppercase(part) then
Result := Result + input[I];
end;
function GetDay(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := GetPart('d', input, format);
if Length(Result) = 1 then Result := SysUtils.Format('0%0:s', [Result]);
end;
function GetMonth(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := GetPart('m', input, format);
if Length(Result) = 1 then Result := SysUtils.Format('0%0:s', [Result]);
end;
function GetYear(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := GetPart('y', input, format);
end;
function ConvertToMyLocalSettings(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := SysUtils.Format('%0:s/%1:s/%2:s', [GetDay(input, format), GetMonth(input, format), GetYear(input, format)]);
end;
begin
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('05/04/2010', 'dd/mm/yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('05-04-2010', 'dd-mm-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('5-4-2010', 'd-m-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('4-5-2010', 'm-d-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('4-05-2010', 'M-dd-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('05/04/2010', 'dd/MM/yyyy'));
Readln;
end.

why does StrToDateTime is throwing exception [duplicate]

Is there any way in Delphi 5 to convert a string to a TDateTime where you can specify the actual format to use?
I'm working on a jobprocessor, which accepts tasks from various workstations. The tasks have a range of parameters, some of which are dates, but (unfortunately, and out of my control) they're passed as strings. Since the jobs can come from different workstations, the actual datetime format used to format the dates as a string might (and, of course, actual do) differ.
Googling around, the only quick solutions I found was to sneakily change the ShortDateFormat variable, and restore it to its original value afterwards. Since ShortDateFormat is a global variable, and I'm working in a threaded environment the only way this would work is by synchronizing every access to it, which is completely unacceptable (and undoable).
I could copy the library code from the SysUtils unit into my own methods, and tweak them to work with a specified format instead of the global variables, but I'm just wondering if there's something more adequate out there that I missed.
UPDATE
To put it more succinctly:
I need something like StrToDate (or StrToDateTime), with the added option of specifying the exact format it should use to convert the string to a TDateTime.
Use VarToDateTime instead. It supports many more date formats in the string and converts them automatically.
var
DateVal: TDateTime;
begin
DateVal := VarToDateTime('23 Sep 2010');
ShowMessage(DateToStr(DateVal));
end;
I see you're using Delphi 5. Some versions of Delphi will need to add Variants to the uses clause; most later versions add it for you. I don't remember which category Delphi 5 fell into.
I created such routine for FreePascal's dateutils unit, and it should easy to port, if porting is needed at all.
Code:
http://svn.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/packages/rtl-objpas/src/inc/dateutil.inc?revision=30628&view=co
(code is the last (huge) procedure at the end of the file)
documentation:
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/dateutils/scandatetime.html
Note that it is not a complete inverse of formatdatetime, and it has some extensions:
An inverse of FormatDateTime is not 100% an inverse, simply because one can put e.g. time tokens twice in the format string,and scandatetime wouldn't know which time to pick.
Strings like hn can't be reversed safely. E.g. 1:2 (2 minutes after 1) delivers 12 which is parsed as 12:00 and then
misses chars for the "n" part.
trailing characters are ignored.
no support for Eastern Asian formatting characters since they are windows only.
no MBCS support.
Extensions
#9 eats whitespace.
whitespace at the end of a pattern is optional.
? matches any char.
Quote the above chars to really match the char.
(I believe these comments are slightly outdated in the sense hat some Asian support was added later but I am not sure)
Later versions of Delphi can take an extra TFormatSettings argument to the string conversion functions. TFormatSettings is a structure containing the various format global variables (ShortDateFormat, LongDateFormat, etc). So you can override those value in a thread-safe manner and even for a single call.
I don't remember in which version of Delphi this was introduced, but I'm pretty sure it was after Delphi 5.
So yeah, as far as I know, you either need to synchronize every access to ShortDateFormat, or use a different function.
Here's the function, its two helpers, and all the code, I wrote to parse a string using an exact datetime format:
class function TDateTimeUtils.TryStrToDateExact(const S, DateFormat: string; PivotYear: Integer;
out Value: TDateTime): Boolean;
var
Month, Day, Year: Integer;
Tokens: TStringDynArray;
CurrentToken: string;
i, n: Integer;
Partial: string;
MaxValue: Integer;
nCurrentYear: Integer;
function GetCurrentYear: Word;
var
y, m, d: Word;
begin
DecodeDate(Now, y, m, d);
Result := y;
end;
begin
Result := False;
{
M/dd/yy
Valid pictures codes are
d Day of the month as digits without leading zeros for single-digit days.
dd Day of the month as digits with leading zeros for single-digit days.
ddd Abbreviated day of the week as specified by a LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME* value, for example, "Mon" in English (United States).
Windows Vista and later: If a short version of the day of the week is required, your application should use the LOCALE_SSHORTESTDAYNAME* constants.
dddd Day of the week as specified by a LOCALE_SDAYNAME* value.
M Month as digits without leading zeros for single-digit months.
MM Month as digits with leading zeros for single-digit months.
MMM Abbreviated month as specified by a LOCALE_SABBREVMONTHNAME* value, for example, "Nov" in English (United States).
MMMM Month as specified by a LOCALE_SMONTHNAME* value, for example, "November" for English (United States), and "Noviembre" for Spanish (Spain).
y Year represented only by the last digit.
yy Year represented only by the last two digits. A leading zero is added for single-digit years.
yyyy Year represented by a full four or five digits, depending on the calendar used. Thai Buddhist and Korean calendars have five-digit years. The "yyyy" pattern shows five digits for these two calendars, and four digits for all other supported calendars. Calendars that have single-digit or two-digit years, such as for the Japanese Emperor era, are represented differently. A single-digit year is represented with a leading zero, for example, "03". A two-digit year is represented with two digits, for example, "13". No additional leading zeros are displayed.
yyyyy Behaves identically to "yyyy".
g, gg Period/era string formatted as specified by the CAL_SERASTRING value.
The "g" and "gg" format pictures in a date string are ignored if there is no associated era or period string.
PivotYear
The maximum year that a 1 or 2 digit year is assumed to be.
The Microsoft de-factor standard for y2k is 2029. Any value greater
than 29 is assumed to be 1930 or higher.
e.g. 2029:
1930, ..., 2000, 2001,..., 2029
If the PivotYear is between 0 and 99, then PivotYear is assumed to be
a date range in the future. e.g. (assuming this is currently 2010):
Pivot Range
0 1911..2010 (no future years)
1 1912..2011
...
98 2009..2108
99 2010..2099 (no past years)
0 ==> no years in the future
99 ==> no years in the past
}
if Length(S) = 0 then
Exit;
if Length(DateFormat) = 0 then
Exit;
Month := -1;
Day := -1;
Year := -1;
Tokens := TDateTimeUtils.TokenizeFormat(DateFormat);
n := 1; //input string index
for i := Low(Tokens) to High(Tokens) do
begin
CurrentToken := Tokens[i];
if CurrentToken = 'MMMM' then
begin
//Long month names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it)
Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'MMM' then
begin
//Short month names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it)
Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'MM' then
begin
//Month, with leading zero if needed
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 2{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, 12{MaxValue}, {var}Month) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'M' then
begin
//months
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 1{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, 12{MaxValue}, {var}Month) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'dddd' then
begin
Exit; //Long day names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it)
end
else if CurrentToken = 'ddd' then
begin
Exit; //Short day names, we don't support yet (you're free to write it);
end
else if CurrentToken = 'dd' then
begin
//If we know what month it is, and even better if we know what year it is, limit the number of valid days to that
if (Month >= 1) and (Month <= 12) then
begin
if Year > 0 then
MaxValue := MonthDays[IsLeapYear(Year), Month]
else
MaxValue := MonthDays[True, Month]; //we don't know the year, assume it's a leap year to be more generous
end
else
MaxValue := 31; //we don't know the month, so assume it's the largest
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 2{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, MaxValue{MaxValue}, {var}Day) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'd' then
begin
//days
//If we know what month it is, and even better if we know what year it is, limit the number of valid days to that
if (Month >= 1) and (Month <= 12) then
begin
if Year > 0 then
MaxValue := MonthDays[IsLeapYear(Year), Month]
else
MaxValue := MonthDays[True, Month]; //we don't know the year, assume it's a leap year to be more generous
end
else
MaxValue := 31; //we don't know the month, so assume it's the largest
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 1{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 1{MinValue}, MaxValue{MaxValue}, {var}Day) then Exit;
end
else if (CurrentToken = 'yyyy') or (CurrentToken = 'yyyyy') then
begin
//Year represented by a full four or five digits, depending on the calendar used.
{
Thai Buddhist and Korean calendars have five-digit years.
The "yyyy" pattern shows five digits for these two calendars,
and four digits for all other supported calendars.
Calendars that have single-digit or two-digit years, such as for
the Japanese Emperor era, are represented differently.
A single-digit year is represented with a leading zero, for
example, "03". A two-digit year is represented with two digits,
for example, "13". No additional leading zeros are displayed.
}
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 4{MinDigits}, 4{MaxDigits}, 0{MinValue}, 9999{MaxValue}, {var}Year) then Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'yyy' then
begin
//i'm not sure what this would look like, so i'll ignore it
Exit;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'yy' then
begin
//Year represented only by the last two digits. A leading zero is added for single-digit years.
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 2{MinDigits}, 2{MaxDigits}, 0{MinValue}, 99{MaxValue}, {var}Year) then Exit;
nCurrentYear := GetCurrentYear;
Year := (nCurrentYear div 100 * 100)+Year;
if (PivotYear < 100) and (PivotYear >= 0) then
begin
//assume pivotyear is a delta from this year, not an absolute value
PivotYear := nCurrentYear+PivotYear;
end;
//Check the pivot year value
if Year > PivotYear then
Year := Year - 100;
end
else if CurrentToken = 'y' then
begin
//Year represented only by the last digit.
if not ReadDigitString(S, n, 1{MinDigits}, 1{MaxDigits}, 0{MinValue}, 9{MaxValue}, {var}Year) then Exit;
nCurrentYear := GetCurrentYear;
Year := (nCurrentYear div 10 * 10)+Year;
if (PivotYear < 100) and (PivotYear >= 0) then
begin
//assume pivotyear is a delta from this year, not an absolute value
PivotYear := nCurrentYear+PivotYear;
end;
//Check the pivot year value
if Year > PivotYear then
Year := Year - 100;
end
else
begin
//The input string should contains CurrentToken starting at n
Partial := Copy(S, n, Length(CurrentToken));
Inc(n, Length(CurrentToken));
if Partial <> CurrentToken then
Exit;
end;
end;
//If there's still stuff left over in the string, then it's not valid
if n <> Length(s)+1 then
begin
Result := False;
Exit;
end;
if Day > MonthDays[IsLeapYear(Year), Month] then
begin
Result := False;
Exit;
end;
try
Value := EncodeDate(Year, Month, Day);
except
Result := False;
Exit;
end;
Result := True;
end;
class function TDateTimeUtils.TokenizeFormat(fmt: string): TStringDynArray;
var
i: Integer;
partial: string;
function IsDateFormatPicture(ch: AnsiChar): Boolean;
begin
case ch of
'M','d','y': Result := True;
else Result := False;
end;
end;
begin
SetLength(Result, 0);
if Length(fmt) = 0 then
Exit;
//format is only one character long? If so then that's the tokenized entry
if Length(fmt)=1 then
begin
SetLength(Result, 1);
Result[0] := fmt;
end;
partial := fmt[1];
i := 2;
while i <= Length(fmt) do
begin
//If the characters in partial are a format picture, and the character in fmt is not the same picture code then write partial to result, and reset partial
if IsDateFormatPicture(partial[1]) then
begin
//if the current fmt character is different than the running partial picture
if (partial[1] <> fmt[i]) then
begin
//Move the current partial to the output
//and start a new partial
SetLength(Result, Length(Result)+1);
Result[High(Result)] := partial;
Partial := fmt[i];
end
else
begin
//the current fmt character is more of the same format picture in partial
//Add it to the partial
Partial := Partial + fmt[i];
end;
end
else
begin
//The running partial is not a format picture.
//If the current fmt character is a picture code, then write out the partial and start a new partial
if IsDateFormatPicture(fmt[i]) then
begin
//Move the current partial to the output
//and start a new partial
SetLength(Result, Length(Result)+1);
Result[High(Result)] := partial;
Partial := fmt[i];
end
else
begin
//The current fmt character is another non-picture code. Add it to the running partial
Partial := Partial + fmt[i];
end;
end;
Inc(i);
Continue;
end;
//If we have a running partial, then add it to the output
if partial <> '' then
begin
SetLength(Result, Length(Result)+1);
Result[High(Result)] := partial;
end;
end;
class function TDateTimeUtils.ReadDigitString(const S: string; var Pos: Integer;
MinDigits, MaxDigits: Integer; MinValue, MaxValue: Integer;
var Number: Integer): Boolean;
var
Digits: Integer;
Value: Integer;
Partial: string;
CandidateNumber: Integer;
CandidateDigits: Integer;
begin
Result := False;
CandidateNumber := -1;
CandidateDigits := 0;
Digits := MinDigits;
while Digits <= MaxDigits do
begin
Partial := Copy(S, Pos, Digits);
if Length(Partial) < Digits then
begin
//we couldn't get all we wanted. We're done; use whatever we've gotten already
Break;
end;
//Check that it's still a number
if not TryStrToInt(Partial, Value) then
Break;
//Check that it's not too big - meaning that getting anymore wouldn't work
if (Value > MaxValue) then
Break;
if (Value >= MinValue) then
begin
//Hmm, looks good. Keep it as our best possibility
CandidateNumber := Value;
CandidateDigits := Digits;
end;
Inc(Digits); //try to be greedy, grabbing even *MORE* digits
end;
if (CandidateNumber >= 0) or (CandidateDigits > 0) then
begin
Inc(Pos, CandidateDigits);
Number := CandidateNumber;
Result := True;
end;
end;
If you want to know how this was solved in later Delphi's, you can take a look at the source of a slightly more modern (looks like Delphi 6) sysutils.pas here:
http://anygen.googlecome.com/.../SysUtils.pas
Check out the overloaded versions of StrToDateTime that take a TFormatSettings parameter.
function StrToDateTime(const S: string;
const FormatSettings: TFormatSettings): TDateTime; overload;
Use RegExpr library (https://github.com/masterandrey/TRegExpr)
var
RE: TRegExpr;
begin
RE := TRegExpr.Create;
try
RE.Expression := '^(\d\d\d\d)/(\d\d)/(\d\d)T(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d\d)$';
if RE.Exec( Value ) then
begin
try
Result := EncodeDate( StrToInt( RE.Match[1] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[2] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[3] ) ) +
EncodeTime( StrToInt( RE.Match[4] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[5] ),
StrToInt( RE.Match[6] ),
0 )
except
raise EConvertError.Create( 'Invalid date-time: ' + Value )
end
end
else
raise EConvertError.Create( 'Bad format: ' + Value )
finally
RE.Free
end
end;
I am not sure about what you want. I don't use Delphi 5 any more but I am pretty sure the function StrToDateTime exists in it. Using it you can convert a string to TDateTime with format settings. Then you can convert such TDateTime to any format using FormatDateTime which enables you to use any date format you wish.
I would go the other way around it. As I see it, you have about two options of wich you mentioned one yourself
Adjust the ShortDateFormat and keep every acces to it synchronized.
If you know the format of the strings you are recieving (somehow, you'll have to), just do some string juggling to first get your strings in your current shortdateformat. After that, convert the (juggled) string to a TDateTime.
I do wonder how you are going to determine the format for say 04/05/2010.
program DateTimeConvert;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
SysUtils;
function GetPart(const part, input, format: string): string;
var
I: Integer;
begin
for I := 1 to Length(format) do
if Uppercase(format[I]) = Uppercase(part) then
Result := Result + input[I];
end;
function GetDay(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := GetPart('d', input, format);
if Length(Result) = 1 then Result := SysUtils.Format('0%0:s', [Result]);
end;
function GetMonth(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := GetPart('m', input, format);
if Length(Result) = 1 then Result := SysUtils.Format('0%0:s', [Result]);
end;
function GetYear(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := GetPart('y', input, format);
end;
function ConvertToMyLocalSettings(const input, format: string): string;
begin
Result := SysUtils.Format('%0:s/%1:s/%2:s', [GetDay(input, format), GetMonth(input, format), GetYear(input, format)]);
end;
begin
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('05/04/2010', 'dd/mm/yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('05-04-2010', 'dd-mm-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('5-4-2010', 'd-m-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('4-5-2010', 'm-d-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('4-05-2010', 'M-dd-yyyy'));
Writeln(ConvertToMyLocalSettings('05/04/2010', 'dd/MM/yyyy'));
Readln;
end.

Delphi - Random Combination (Math)

I have a BIG problem here and do not even know how to start...
In short explanation, I need to know if a number is in a set of results from a random combination...
Let me explain better: I created a random "number" with 3 integer chars from 1 to 8, like this:
procedure TForm1.btn1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
cTmp: Char;
sTmp: String[3];
begin
sTmp := '';
While (Length(sTmp) < 3) Do
Begin
Randomize;
cTmp := IntToStr(Random(7) + 1)[1];
If (Pos(cTmp, sTmp) = 0) Then
sTmp := sTmp + cTmp;
end;
edt1.Text := sTmp;
end;
Now I need to know is some other random number, let's say "324" (example), is in the set of results of that random combination.
Please, someone can help? A link to get the equations to solve this problem will be enough...
Ok, let me try to add some useful information:
Please, first check this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination
Once I get some number typed by user, in an editbox, I need to check if it is in the set of this random combination: S = (1..8) and k = 3
Tricky, hum?
Here is what I got. Maybe it be usefull for someone in the future. Thank you for all people that tried to help!
Function IsNumOnSet(const Min, Max, Num: Integer): Boolean;
var
X, Y, Z: Integer;
Begin
Result := False;
For X := Min to Max Do
For Y := Min to Max Do
For Z := Min to Max Do
If (X <> Y) and (X <> Z) and (Y <> Z) Then
If (X * 100 + Y * 10 + Z = Num) Then
Begin
Result := True;
Exit;
end;
end;
You want to test whether something is a combination. To do this you need to verify that the putative combination satisfies the following conditions:
Each element is in the range 1..N and
No element appears more than once.
So, implement it like this.
Declare an array of counts, say array [1..N] of Integer. If N varies at runtime you will need a dynamic array.
Initialise all members of the array to zero.
Loop through each element of the putative combination. Check that the element is in the range 1..N. And increment the count for that element.
If any element has a count greater than 1 then this is not a valid combination.
Now you can simplify by replacing the array of integers with an array of booleans but that should be self evident.
You have your generator. Once your value is built, do something like
function isValidCode( Digits : Array of Char; Value : String ) : Boolean;
var
nI : Integer;
begin
for nI := 0 to High(Digits) do
begin
result := Pos(Digits[nI], Value ) > 0;
if not result then break;
end;
end;
Call like this...
isValidCode(["3","2","4"], RandomValue);
Note : it works only because you have unique digits, the digit 3 is only once in you final number. For something more generic, you'll have to tweak this function. (testing "3","3","2" would return true but it would be false !)
UPDATED :
I dislike the nested loop ^^. Here is a function that return the nTh digit of an integer. It will return -1 if the digits do not exists. :
function TForm1.getDigits(value : integer; ndigits : Integer ) : Integer;
var
base : Integer;
begin
base := Round(IntPower( 10, ndigits-1 ));
result := Trunc( value / BASE ) mod 10;
end;
nDigits is the digits number from right to left starting at 1. It will return the value of the digit.
GetDigits( 234, 1) returns 4
GetDigits( 234, 2) returns 3
GetDigits( 234, 3) returns 2.
GetDigits( 234, 4) returns 0.
Now this last function checks if a value is a good combination, specifying the maxdigits you're looking for :
function isValidCombination( value : integer; MinVal, MaxVal : Integer; MaxDigits : Integer ) : Boolean;
var
Buff : Array[0..9] of Integer;
nI, digit: Integer;
begin
ZeroMemory( #Buff, 10*4);
// Store the count of digits for
for nI := 1 to MaxDigits do
begin
digit := getDigits(value, nI);
Buff[digit] := Buff[digit] + 1;
end;
// Check if the value is more than the number of digits.
if Value >= Round(IntPower( 10, MaxDigits )) then
begin
result := False;
exit;
end;
// Check if the value has less than MaxDigits.
if Value < Round(IntPower( 10, MaxDigits-1 )) then
begin
result := False;
exit;
end;
result := true;
for nI := 0 to 9 do
begin
// Exit if more than One occurence of digit.
result := Buff[nI] < 2 ;
if not result then break;
// Check if digit is present and valid.
result := (Buff[nI] = 0) or InRange( nI, MinVal, MaxVal );
if not result then break;
end;
end;
Question does not seem too vague to me,
Maybe a bit poorly stated.
From what I understand you want to check if a string is in a set of randomly generated characters.
Here is how that would work fastest, keep a sorted array of all letters and how many times you have each letter.
Subtract each letter from the target string
If any value in the sorted int array goes under 0 then that means the string can not be made from those characters.
I made it just work with case insensitive strings but it can easily be made to work with any string by making the alphabet array 255 characters long and not starting from A.
This will not allow you to use characters twice like the other example
so 'boom' is not in 'b' 'o' 'm'
Hope this helps you.
function TForm1.isWordInArray(word: string; arr: array of Char):Boolean;
var
alphabetCount: array[0..25] of Integer;
i, baseval, position : Integer;
s: String;
c: Char;
begin
for i := 0 to 25 do alphabetCount[i] := 0; // init alphabet
s := UpperCase(word); // make string uppercase
baseval := Ord('A'); // count A as the 0th letter
for i := 0 to Length(arr)-1 do begin // disect array and build alhabet
c := UpCase(arr[i]); // get current letter
inc(alphabetCount[(Ord(c)-baseval)]); // add 1 to the letter count for that letter
end;
for i := 1 to Length(s) do begin // disect string
c := s[i]; // get current letter
position := (Ord(c)-baseval);
if(alphabetCount[position]>0) then // if there is still latters of that kind left
dec(alphabetCount[position]) // delete 1 to the letter count for that letter
else begin // letternot there!, exit with a negative result
Result := False;
Exit;
end;
end;
Result := True; // all tests where passed, the string is in the array
end;
implemented like so:
if isWordInArray('Delphi',['d','l','e','P','i','h']) then Caption := 'Yup' else Caption := 'Nope'; //yup
if isWordInArray('boom',['b','o','m']) then Caption := 'Yup' else Caption := 'Nope'; //nope, a char can only be used once
Delphi rocks!
begin
Randomize; //only need to execute this once.
sTmp := '';
While (Length(sTmp) < 3) Do
Begin
cTmp := IntToStr(Random(7) + 1)[1]; // RANDOM(7) produces # from 0..6
// so result will be '1'..'7', not '8'
// Alternative: clmp := chr(48 + random(8));
If (Pos(cTmp, sTmp) = 0) Then
sTmp := sTmp + cTmp;
IF SLMP = '324' THEN
DOSOMETHING; // don't know what you actually want to do
// Perhaps SET SLMP=''; to make sure '324'
// isn't generated?
end;
edt1.Text := sTmp;
end;

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