Hi everyone. I hope the title makes sense: I am trying to achieve a consistent definition of dates when there is some information missing (eg. the precise day or month of a given event).

Consider Tinderbox default behavior when you introduce something into $StartDate or $EndDate:

– if you put "2020", the output will be "15/06/20, 00:00"
– if you put "10/2020", the output will be "01/10/20, 00:00"
– if you put "05/10/2020", the output will be 05/10/20, 17:21"

I am trying to make this more consistent (IMHO) by using two user-defined list-type key attributes ($PartialStartDate and $PartialEndDate) which get interpreted by a set of rules and produce my desired $StartDate and #EndDate as follows:

– if I put year only in $PartialStartDate, $StartDate gets assigned the first day of that year, at 00:00;
– if I put year only in $PartialEndtDate, $EndtDate gets assigned the last day of that year, at 23:59;

– if I put month and year only in $PartialStartDate, $StartDate gets assigned the first day of that month, at 00:00;
– if I put month and year only in $PartialEndtDate, $EndtDate gets assigned the last day of that month, at 23:59;

– if I put month, year and day in $PartialStartDate, $StartDate gets assigned that day/month/year, at 00:00;
– if I put month, year and day in $PartialEndtDate, $EndDate gets assigned that day/month/year, at 23:59;

(being list-type attributes, year, month and day are separated by ";" and not by "/")

Other rules state that:

– if the $PartialStartDate is empty, the $PartialEndDate is cleared as well (no end dates without start dates);

- $PartialEndDate gets assigned the content of $PartialStartDate, if empty; this allows, for example:

         – you place 05/2020 in $PartialStartDate;
         – 05/2020 gets automatically assigned to $PartialEndDate;
         – $StartDate gets assigned "01/05/2020, 00:00" and $EndDate gets assigned "31/05/2020, 23:59";
         – if needed, $PartialEndDate can be changed to other date, and $EndDate will be updated.


The rules are as follows:

Code:

f ($PartialStartDate.count=3)
{
$StartDate = date($PartialStartDate.at(2) / $PartialStartDate.at(1) / $PartialStartDate.at(0) + ",00:00:00");
};

if ($PartialStartDate.count=2)
{
$StartDate = date($PartialStartDate.at(1) / $PartialStartDate.at(0) / 01 + ",00:00:00");
};

if ($PartialStartDate.count=1)
{
$StartDate = date($PartialStartDate.at(0) / 01 / 01 + ",00:00:00");
};

if ($PartialEndDate.count=3)
{
$EndDate = date($PartialEndDate.at(2) / $PartialEndDate.at(1) / $PartialEndDate.at(0) + ",23:59:59");
};

if ($PartialEndDate.count=2)
{
$EndDate = date($PartialEndDate.at(1) / $PartialEndDate.at(0) / 01 + ",23:59:59") + 1month - 1day;
};

if ($PartialEndDate.count=1)
{
$EndDate = date($PartialEndDate.at(0) / 12 / 31 + ",23:59:59");
};

if ($PartialEndDate="") {
$PartialEndDate=$PartialStartDate;
};

if ($PartialStartDate="") {
$PartialEndDate=;
$StartDate=;
};

if ($PartialEndDate="") {
$EndDate=;
};
 

i


I'm sharing with you the TBX file https://www.dropbox.com/s/z7x0l2a0hcv3vak/broad_date_definition.tbx?dl=0

so all critics are welcome! Namely:

– if Tinderbox has a native way of doing this and I didn't knew;
– if there's a more elegant way to write the set of rules;

– and a PROBLEM that I am having trouble sorting out: if I place "1949" in year, it gets interpreted as "2049"; but "1950" gets interpreted as "1950". I'd like years to be interpreted literally, with 4-digits ... trying but having no luck so far. So help appreciated to solve this one!  

Thanks.
Bruno.

Hmm yes, something with locale settings in OSX Preferences ... giving trouble.

If I define short date format to dd/MM/yy and put "1949" in $PartialStartDate and $PartialEndDate, I get:

$StartDate = 01/01/2049, 00:00
$EndDate = 31/12/2049, 23:59

If I define short date format to dd/MM/yyyy and put "1949" in $PartialStartDate and $PartialEndDate, I get:

$StartDate = 01/01/1949, 00:00
$EndDate = 31/12/1949, 23:59

but if you place "10;1949" in $PartialStartDate, then $EndDate gets a very weird value ...

I think I got it. Here's a new TBX: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ruckv6pnx298ps0/broad_date_definition%202.tbx?dl=0

I have replaced the $Rule to this:

Code:

if ($PartialStartDate.count=1) {
$StartDate = "01/01/" + $PartialStartDate.at(0);
$StartDate=hour($StartDate,0);
$StartDate=minute($StartDate,0);
$StartDate=second($StartDate,0);
};

if ($PartialEndDate.count=1) {
$EndDate = "31/12/" + $PartialEndDate.at(0);
$EndDate =hour($EndDate,23);
$EndDate =minute($EndDate,59);
$EndDate =second($EndDate,59);
};

if ($PartialStartDate.count=2) {
$StartDate = "01/" + $PartialStartDate.at(0) + "/" + $PartialStartDate.at(1);
$StartDate=hour($StartDate,0);
$StartDate=minute($StartDate,0);
$StartDate=second($StartDate,0);
};

if ($PartialEndDate.count=2) {
$EndDate = "31/" + $PartialEndDate.at(0) + "/" + $PartialEndDate.at(1);
$EndDate =hour($EndDate,23);
$EndDate =minute($EndDate,59);
$EndDate =second($EndDate,59);
};

if ($PartialStartDate.count=3) {
$StartDate = $PartialStartDate.at(0) + "/" + $PartialStartDate.at(1) + "/" + $PartialStartDate.at(2);
$StartDate=hour($StartDate,0);
$StartDate=minute($StartDate,0);
$StartDate=second($StartDate,0);
};

if ($PartialEndDate.count=3) {
$EndDate = $PartialEndDate.at(0) + "/" + $PartialEndDate.at(1) + "/" + $PartialEndDate.at(2);
$EndDate=hour($EndDate,23);
$EndDate=minute($EndDate,59);
$EndDate=second($EndDate,59);
};

if ($PartialEndDate="") {
$PartialEndDate=$PartialStartDate;
};

if ($PartialStartDate="") {
$PartialEndDate=;
$StartDate=;
};

if ($PartialEndDate="") {
$EndDate=;
};

$Interval=interval($StartDate,$EndDate); 

Not very pretty but seems to work. Also this implies that you have set 4 digit year in system prefs in OSX (at short date format) or dates will get messed up whenever there's a calculation.

There may be a cleaner way to do it but for now, seems be enough for me!

Thanks for the notice Mark. Must not forget that.

Thanks again. At a given time I removed the date() because I was getting odd results, but the problem was with System Preferences / Short Date format, which was displaying years with 2 digits instead of 4. As a result, date() did a recalculation and the result was "wrong". But now I guess it's ok to get back at it