> edit1.text:=qry.fieldbyname('OrderDate').value;

> --
>  [m [1;32m? ?:?Ei??aoo? bbs.yeskw.com?E[FROM: dns.hiperfect.com] [m

> Is using edit1.text:=FormatDateTime('dd/mm/yyyy',Date) appropriate here?

> cocl <yeskw....@bbs.yeskw.com> wrote in message
> news:3f15Yg$tPA@bbs.yeskw.com...
> > How to get a 'MM/DD/YYYY' short format string suitable
> > for edit1.text as below, if use qry.fieldbyname('OrderDate').value

> > edit1.text:=qry.fieldbyname('OrderDate').value;

> > --
> >  [m [1;32m? ?:?Ei??aoo? bbs.yeskw.com?E[FROM: dns.hiperfect.com] [m

> "Thad Letnes" <tlet...@wizdom.com> skrev i melding
> news:3A8DB22A.A6B82A0D@wizdom.com...
> > I've been wondering if anyone knows how to go the other direction, that
> > is
> > to make a function that looks something like:
> > function UnFormatDateTime(format : string; source : string):TdateTime;
> > I know about VarToDateTime, but it isn't really as powerful as this
> > would be.
> > there are of course ambiguities, such as what if source is the string
> > 'monday', but I'm sure that that could be overcome, maybe by finding the
> > monday closest to no, or the next monday after now, or either of those
> > with 0 instead of now. In any case even with a couple of extra ambiguity
> > clarifiers I think such a function would vastly simplify the handling of
> > datetimes especially when interacting with users.
> > Does anyone have thoughts about this?

> Hi !

> While this function is not the prettiest I've written, it works (in Norway,
> that is...). It's a bit ugly, because I've added functionality without going
> rewriting the whole thing. It handles the following:

> "dd" = today
> "mo" = monday this week
> "mo+" = monday next week
> "mo--" = monday two weeks ago
> "1"n = 1st of this month
> "101" = January 1.
> "1.1" = January 1.
> "Jan 1",
> "1. Jan"
> + the complete date formats like "1.1.2001", "1/1/2001", "1.jan 01"

> ...all written to handle the DDMMYY order of operators and Norwegian +
> English day/month names. May not directly suit your needs, but I believe it's
> quite a good indication of what may actually be done with a date input
> string...

> Good luck !

> ------
> interface
>   function LeadingZeros(const Text: string; Count: integer): string;
> overload;
>   function LeadingZeros(Number, Count: integer): string; overload;
>   function StrToDateEx(S: string; DefaultDate: TDateTime): TDateTime;

> implementation

> function StraightenDate(S: string): string;
> var
>   NumDigits              : byte;
>   i                      : integer;
> begin
>   if Length(S) = 0 then exit;
>   NumDigits := 0;
>   result := '';
>   for i := 1 to Length(S) do
>   begin
>     case S[i] of
>       '0'..'9':
>         begin
>           inc(NumDigits);
>           result := result + S[i];
>         end;
>       '.', ':', '-':
>         begin
>           if NumDigits = 1 then
>             insert('0', result, Length(result));
>           NumDigits := 0;
>         end;
>       ';': exit;
>     end;
>   end;
>   if Odd(NumDigits) then
>     insert('0', result, 1); file://Length(result));
> end;

> function LeadingZeros(const Text: string; Count: integer): string;
> begin
>   result := text;
>   while Length(result) < Count do
>     result := '0' + result;
> end;

> function LeadingZeros(Number, Count: integer): string;
> begin
>   result := LeadingZeros(inttostr(Number), Count);
> end;

> function NamesToMonths(const S: string): string;
> var
>   StartPos               : integer;
>   EndPos                 : integer;
>   Tmp                    : string;

> // This replaces the month name with the corresponding
> // month number, if found
>   function TestRemove(const Str: string; AMonth: Word): boolean;
>   begin
>     StartPos := Pos(Str, Tmp);
>     result := StartPos > 0;
>     if result then
>     begin
>       EndPos := StartPos + 1;
>       while (Tmp[EndPos] in ['a'..'z']) and (EndPos < Length(Tmp)) do
>         inc(EndPos);
>       Delete(Tmp, StartPos, EndPos - StartPos);
>       Insert(LeadingZeros(AMonth, 2), Tmp, StartPos);
>       NamesToMonths := Tmp;
>     end;
>   end;

> begin
>   result := '';
>   Tmp := LowerCase(S);
>   if TestRemove('jan', 1) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('feb', 2) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('mar', 3) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('apr', 4) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('mai', 5) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('may', 5) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('jun', 6) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('jul', 7) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('aug', 8) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('sep', 9) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('oct', 10) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('okt', 10) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('nov', 11) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('des', 12) then exit;
>   if TestRemove('dec', 12) then exit;
>   result := Tmp;
> end;

> function NamesToDays(const S: string): word;
> begin
>   if Pos('ma', S) > 0 then
>     result := 2
>   else if Pos('ti', S) > 0 then
>     result := 3
>   else if pos('to', S) > 0 then
>     result := 5
>   else if pos('on', S) > 0 then
>     result := 4
>   else if pos('fr', S) > 0 then
>     result := 6
>   else if pos('l?', S) > 0 then
>     result := 7
>   else if pos('s?', S) > 0 then
>     result := 1
>   else if Pos('mo', S) > 0 then
>     result := 2
>   else if Pos('tu', S) > 0 then
>     result := 3
>   else if pos('th', S) > 0 then
>     result := 5
>   else if pos('we', S) > 0 then
>     result := 4
>   else if pos('sa', S) > 0 then
>     result := 7
>   else if pos('su', S) > 0 then
>     result := 1
>   else
>     result := 0; // invalid day-string...
> end;

> function RemoveSeparators(const S: string): string;
> const
>   Numbers                = '0123456789';
> var
>   i                      : integer;
>   NumStart,
>     NumCount             : Word;
> begin
>   NumStart := 0;
>   NumCount := 0;
>   result := '';
>   for i := 1 to Length(S) do
>   begin
>     if Pos(S[i], Numbers) > 0 then
>     begin
>       if NumCount = 0 then
>         NumStart := i;
>       inc(NumCount);
>     end
>     else
>     begin
>       if NumCount = 0 then
>       else if NumCount = 1 then
>         result := result + LeadingZeros(Copy(S, NumStart, 1), 2)
>       else
>         result := result + Copy(S, NumStart, NumCount);
>       NumStart := 0;
>       NumCount := 0;
>     end;
>   end;
>   if NumStart > 0 then
>     result := result + Copy(S, NumStart, NumCount);
> end;

> function StrToDateEx(S: string; DefaultDate: TDateTime): TDateTime; //
> Utvidede datokonverteringer
> var
>   L                      : integer;
>   YY,
>     MM,
>     DD                   : word;
>   Tmp                    : string;
>   APos,
>     DOW,
>     CurrDayNo            : byte;
>   WeekDelta              : integer;
> begin
>   Tmp := NamesToMonths(S);
>   S := RemoveSeparators(Tmp);
>   if StrToIntDef(S, -999999) = -999999 then
>   begin
>     WeekDelta := 0;
>     DOW := NamesToDays(Tmp);
>     CurrDayNo := DayOfWeek(Date);
>     if DOW = 0 then
>     begin file://...error !!!
>       result := Date;
>       exit;
>     end
>     else if (DOW = 1) and (CurrDayNo > 1) then
>       DOW := 8;
>     repeat
>       APos := Pos('+', Tmp);
>       if Apos > 0 then
>       begin
>         inc(WeekDelta);
>         Delete(Tmp, APos, 1);
>       end;
>     until
>       APos = 0;
>     if WeekDelta = 0 then
>       repeat
>         APos := Pos('-', Tmp);
>         if Apos > 0 then
>         begin
>           dec(WeekDelta);
>           Delete(Tmp, APos, 1);
>         end;
>       until
>         APos = 0;
>     result := Date - CurrDayNo + DOW + (Weekdelta * 7);
>     exit;
>   end;
>   S := StraightenDate(S);
>   L := length(S);
>   result := DefaultDate;
>   try
>     case L of
>       0, 1, 3, 5, 7: exit;
>       2:
>         begin
>           DecodeDate(Date, YY, MM, DD);
>           result := EncodeDate(YY, MM, StrToInt(S));
>         end;
>       4:
>         begin
>           DecodeDate(Date, YY, MM, DD);
>           result := EncodeDate(YY, StrToInt(Copy(S, 3, 2)), StrToInt(Copy(S,
> 1, 2)));
>         end;
>       6:
>         begin
>           YY := StrToInt(Copy(S, 5, 2));
>           if YY > TwoDigitYearCenturyWindow then
>             YY := 1900 + YY
>           else
>             YY := 2000 + YY;
>           result := EncodeDate(YY, StrToInt(Copy(S, 3, 2)), StrToInt(Copy(S,
> 1, 2)));
>         end;
>       8:
>         begin
>           result := EncodeDate(StrToInt(Copy(S, 5, 4)), StrToInt(Copy(S, 3,
> 2)), StrToInt(Copy(S, 1, 2)));
>         end;
>     end;
>   except
>     on E: EConvertError do
>     begin
>       if DefaultDate <> -1 then
>         result := DefaultDate
>       else
>         raise EConvertError.Create(Exception(ExceptObject).Message);
>     end;
>   end;
> end;

> --
> Bjoerge Saether
> Consultant / Developer
> http://www.itte.no
> Asker, Norway
> bjorgeremovet...@itte.no (remove the obvious)