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TSTool / Command / FormatTableDateTime

Overview

The FormatTableDateTime command formats a date/time input column from a table to create a table output column. For example, it may be necessary to reformat a date/time column into an object type that is more suitable for reporting, further processing, or export to a spreadsheet. See also the FormatTableString command, which manipulates strings. Formatting occurs as follows:

  1. The date/time input column value is parsed into an internal date/time object:
    1. If the input column is not an increment (Increment tab parameters are blank) then the input column is parsed directly to a date/time object.
      • DateTime input column type is used directly without parsing.
      • String input column is parsed by detecting standard formats (e.g., ISO YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss or MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss of varying precision)
    2. If the input column is an increment from a starting date/time (Increment tab parameters are not blank), the date/time object is computed as the offset from the starting date/time, for example the number of minutes or hours since the start of an event. Whole interval offsets (e.g., number of seconds since start) and offsets with fractional interval (e.g., minutes 123.1) are handled.
  2. The date/time object from the previous step is formatted into a string using the format specifier string specified by the FormatterType and DateTimeFormat parameters:
    1. Missing values in input will result in blanks (nulls) in output.
    2. The specified format must be compatible with the output column type (see next step):
      • A full date/time string (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss) can only be converted to DateTime or String output.
      • A simple output format such as YYYY can be converted to Integer or Double.
  3. The string is converted into the final output column type by specifying the OutputType parameter:
    1. DateTime output might be used to create date/time objects with less precision than the original input column (e.g., to truncate hh:mm:ss where ss is always 00 and therefore superfluous).
    2. Integer or Double types can be created if the date/time output string from the previous step contains integer or floating-point number (e.g., YYYY or YYYY.MM).
    3. String outputs the string from the previous step.

Command Editor

The command is available in the following TSTool menu:

  • Commands(Table) / Manipulate Table Values

The following dialog is used to edit the command and illustrates the syntax of the command, showing input parameters.

FormatTableDateTime command editor for Input parameters

FormatTableDateTime Command Editor for Input Parameters (see full-size image)

The following dialog is used to edit the command and illustrates the syntax of the command, showing time increment parameters.

FormatTableDateTime command editor for Increment parameters

FormatTableDateTime Command Editor for Increment Parameters (see full-size image)

The following dialog is used to edit the command and illustrates the syntax of the command, showing format parameters.

FormatTableDateTime command editor for Format parameters

FormatTableDateTime Command Editor for Format Parameters (see full-size image)

The following dialog is used to edit the command and illustrates the syntax of the command, showing output parameters.

FormatTableDateTime command editor for Output parameters

FormatTableDateTime Command Editor for Output Parameters (see full-size image)

Command Syntax

The command syntax is as follows:

FormatTableDateTime(Parameter="Value",...)

Command Parameters

Tab Parameter                           Description Default          
Input TableID The identifier for the table to process. Can be specified using processor ${Property}. None – must be specified.
InputColumn The name of the input date/time column to process. The column can contain date/time objects or strings that can be parsed into date/time objects. If IncrementStart is specified, this column should contain integers that indicate the offset from the increment start. Can be specified using processor ${Property}. None – must be specified.
Increment IncrementStart When input column is an increasing time increment, specify the starting date/time. Can be specified using processor ${Property}. Do not use increment.
IncrementBaseUnit When input column is an increasing time increment, specify the base unit for increment values: Minute, Hour, Day, Year. Do not use increment.
Format FormatterType The date/time formatter type that defines DateTimeFormat:
  • C – the C programming language strftime() function, which has been widely copied (described below), with extensions for TSTool
  • MS – Microsoft convention (currently not supported but may be added in the future)
 C
DateTimeFormat The format specifier string used to format the date/time values. Specify as many format specifiers as appropriate. All other characters will be transferred to the output string. See the table below for valid specifiers. Can be specified using processor ${Property}. None – must be specified.
Output OutputYearType Indicate the year type used to transform the date/time to an output. For example, specify OutputYearType=Water and DateTimeFormat=${dt:YearForYearType} to output the water year corresponding to the input date/time.
OutputColumn The name of the column to receive the output. If the column does not exist in the table it will be created, considering OutputType. Can be specified using processor ${Property}. None – must be specified.
OutputType Specify if the output column should be other than a String. Successful conversion to the output type requires that the format string result is consistent with the desired output type. String
InsertBeforeColumn The name of the column before which the output column should be inserted (if the output column needs to be created). Can be specified using processor ${Property}. Insert at the end of the table.

The following table lists the supported format strings for FormatterType=C:

Supported C (Strftime) Format Specifiers

Format Specifier                           Description
%a Weekday abbreviation (e.g., Sun)
%A Weekday (e.g., Sunday).
%b Month abbreviation (e.g., Jan).
%B Month (e.g., January).
%d Day (01-31).
%H Hour (00-23).
%h Hundredths of seconds (00-99), computed from nanoseconds stored with the time. This is a TSTool extension to C standard.
%I Hour (01-12).
%j Day of year (001-366).
%l Milliseconds (000-999), computed from nanoseconds stored with the time. This is a TSTool extension to C standard.
%m Month (01-12).
%M Minute (00-59).
%n Nanoseconds (000000000-999999999). This is a TSTool extension to C standard.
%p AM, PM (noon=PM, midnight=AM).
%S Second (00-59).
%s Number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970 00:00:00
%u Microseconds (000000-999999), computed from nanoseconds stored with the time. This is a TSTool extension to C standard.
%y Year (00-99).
%Y Year (0000-9999).
%Z Time zone (e.g., MST).
${dt:YearForYearType} 4-digit year for the given OutputYearType.

Examples

See the automated tests.

The following example illustrates how to convert an input date/time column into variations of the date/time, with the following input used to generate the WaterYearDateTime column (surrounding quotes will be added automatically by command editor). Note the change in value of the water year.

InputColumn=Date
DateTimeFormat=%Y
OutputYearType=Water
OutputColumn=WateryearDateTime
OuputType=DateTime

Output is as shown below.

FormatTableDateTime command output

Formatted Date/time Output (see full-size image)

The following example illustrates how to convert increment data into a full date/time column string, with the following input (surrounding quotes will be added automatically by command editor):

InputColumn=Hour of Event
IncrementStart=2015-01-01 00
IncrementBaseUnit=Hour
DateTimeFormat=%m/%d/%Y %H
OutputColumn=DateTime

Output is as shown below.

Formatted output for increment data

Formatted Date/time Output for Increment Data (see full-size image)

Troubleshooting

See the main TSTool Troubleshooting documentation.

See Also