DataLab is a compact statistics package aiming at exploratory data analysis. Please visit the DataLab Web site for more information....

Home Features of DataLab Loading and Storing Data Loading Data Text Files Importing Complex Text Data Parsing Date and Time
See also: Importing Complex Text Data, Mathematical Expressions in Import Scripts 

Parsing Date and Time


The command scandatetime of the import script language for text data files parses date/time expressions according to the following format templates (the format characters are case sensitive):

Element Description
d The one- or two-digit day.
dd The two-digit day. Single-digit day values are preceded by a zero.
ddd The three-character weekday abbreviation.
dddd The full weekday name.
h The one- or two-digit hour in 12-hour format.
hh The two-digit hour in 12-hour format. Single-digit values are preceded by a zero.
H The one- or two-digit hour in 24-hour format.
HH The two-digit hour in 24-hour format. Single-digit values are preceded by a zero.
m The one- or two-digit minute.
mm The two-digit minute. Single-digit values are preceded by a zero.
M The one- or two-digit month number.
MM The two-digit month number. Single-digit values are preceded by a zero.
MMM The three-character month abbreviation.
MMMM The full month name.
s The one- or two-digit second.
ss The two-digit second. Single-digit values are preceded by a zero.
t The one-letter AM/PM abbreviation (that is, AM is displayed as "A").
tt The two-letter AM/PM abbreviation (that is, AM is displayed as "AM").
yy The last two digits of the year (that is, 2001 would be displayed as "01").
yyyy The full year (that is, 2001 would be displayed as "2001").

To include literal strings in the format, enclose them in single quotes. Failing to quote literal strings can have unpredictable results, even if they do not include formatting codes. Use two single quotes to represent one single quote character in literal string.