cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

JMP Wish List

We want to hear your ideas for improving JMP. Share them here.
Choose Language Hide Translation Bar

Character to DateTime AutoConversion

What inspired this wish list request? 

Datetime parameters that often download as a character from databases need to be converted to datetime. I typically use a script similar to below to do this. 

 
dt=Current Data Table();
 
// Prompt user to select a Character column from the current data table
ret = Column Dialog(col = ColList("to Format", Min Col(1), Data Type("Character")));
 
// Check that user clicked OK button and use return to define the value of col
if(ret["Button"] == 1,
eval(ret[1]);
, // else canceled.  Stop the script and notify the user.
throw("No Column Selected");
);
 
for each({c}, col, 
c << Set Data Type(Numeric,
Input Format("Format Pattern", 
"<YYYY><-><MM><-><DD><'T'><hh24><:><mm><:><ss>Z", 
0
),
Format("Format Pattern", "<MM></><DD></><YYYY> <hh24><:><mm><:><ss>:000", 23, 0)
);
c << Set Modeling Type("Continuous");
);

 

What is the improvement you would like to see? 

Avoid the script. JMP should have this intelligence built in during a data import (maybe an option to be selected by the user) , anything that looks like a date, time or datetime , convert them to user's preference (or datetime as default)

Why is this idea important? 

Efficiency. Each time I have an issue like this, I have to find the script and execute it.. 

 

 

1 Comment
tsquared83
Level I

This is the most frustrating thing I have to do every time I load in data.  Standard datetime formats should be automatically parsed.