Vb Classic Date Conversions

Is it possible to convert a string to a Date, in a way that does >NOT< depend on the current locale settings?

  Debug.Assert Format$(CDate("01/02/2001"), "MM/DD/YYYY") = "01/02/2001"

...works when short date format is 'M/d/yy', but fails when it's 'd/M/yy'.

(In other words, I want a "CDate-like" function that always converts "01/02/2001" to January 2nd, regardless of locale; never February 1st.) -- JeffGrigg

But that behaviour would be broken: to me, in EN-gb, 9/11 is the 9th of November. Use IsoDateFormat or (long or short) month names to avoid ambiguity. Question, though: in non-EN locales, can you still use EN month names, or would I, in DE say, use Januar, Februar etc? -- JonKale

If you parse the string yourself, you can use the DateAdd() function to add the month and day separately to "01/01/YYYY". -- WayneMack

Or you can use the dateserial Function to assemble the date after splitting the string yourself -- AndyMorris

   CDate("#12/31/2000#")

was suggested. Doesn't work. -- JeffGrigg

Try it without the quotes. As I recall, #s are the delimiters for dates, while "s are for strings -- as shown above, you are making a string that starts and ends with the symbol "#". -- JimRussell

Right, I really do have a string:

Suppose I have...

 Private Function MyCDate(ByVal pstr As String) As Date
    MyCDate = CDate(pstr)
 End Function

When I do "Control Panel -> Regional Settings -> Date (tab)" and set "Short date style" to "M/d/yy", MyCDate("01/02/2000") returns January 2nd, as it should. Now I set "Short date style" to "d/M/yy", the same MyCDate("01/02/2000") call returns February 1st.

This is not good; I need to get the same result from the same input and VB code, regardless of the locale (regional settings).

-- JeffGrigg

It's working the way it's supposed to isn't it? Not meaning to be rude but as already suggested, split the string up and use DateSerial(y,m,d) if the format is fixed. Or switch to the IsoDateFormat -- SamJessup

DateSerial is the answer!!!

IsoDateFormat seems to work, but there's no documentation that says that CDate() will accept ISO date format in addition to your locale-defined date format. (...at least none that I can find. ;-)

I must admit, I pretty much detest regional date formats. And not being american, I fail to see why the date is anything other than dd/mm/yyyy. (I'm sure there is a reason, but can't figure out why...)

Anyhow, what I use is this...

dtmDate = CDate("12 January 2002")

if you only have the month as a number, I guess it would be something more like this...

  dtmDate = CDate("12 " & MonthName(lngMonthValue, false) & " 2002")

Excuse that last bit if it is slightly wrong, as I don't have VB installed anymore to check syntax. (Using C# now) Perhaps I've missed the point, but I've found this to be a pretty versatile solution

-- DaveBeer

CategoryVbClassic