Hi,

I'm going crazy trying to write a simple script to add one hour to a time field. Actually, it works the way it should if I use a24 hour time but if I want to see 11:03:13 PM, the system breaks down.

I tried converting 12 hour time to 24 hr time for computing and the back to 12 hr but when I go to 12 hr it drops zeros like this: 11:3:13 PM. This happens when I try to add the "AM" or "PM at the end of the calculated result. Ideally, I'd like to drop the seconds so it reads 11:03 PM. Then I'll run the script and it'll say 12:03 AM, 1:03 AM, and so on...

I'm using the following:

Insert Calculated Result [select, "Scrach Time" , "Hour(Scratch Time) - 12 & ":" & Minute(Scratch Time) & " PM""]

I'd really appreciate any help stopping this madness.

Thanks

Ummm ... you can simply add 1 hour to a Time field, but it has to be defined in seconds,

ie. SetField [MyTime, MyTime + 3600]

FileMaker itself takes care of am / pm (although not date changes!) and you can use the Format > Time menu option to set the field to display however you want.

Well, don't I feel stupid! Thank you so much

Works like a charm.

Helpful Harry said:

...takes care of am / pm (although not date changes!)...

If you want to take care of date changes ( ie calculate an accurate time when the result of the adjustment is after midnight, you can use:

Set Field ["MyTime", "Mod(MyTime + 3600, 86400)"]

I don't see why that's necessary. FileMaker itself will adjust for going past the am / pm barriers, but to also adjust a date when going into a new day requires a bit more scripting, and of course a Date field.

ie. very roughly If MyTime > "12:00am" then SetField(MyDate, MyDate + 1)

Hi Harry,

You'll find that if you run a script that sets a field (eg 'TimeField') that has 11:44pm in it, to:

TimeField + 3600

- the value in the field will be 24:44:00 - and the time value will continue incrementing upwards with each further call of the script, until the value in the field reaches 32766:59:59 (a value which represents 117,961,199 seconds - a span of about four years). After that, FileMaker will no longer recognise it as a valid measurement of time (and the field will show a '?' to signify an invalid/unrecognized value).

It is only if you apply a *custom* time format to the field on a particular layout, that FileMaker will then re-interpret the value and display it as an 'intelligible' time (eg 12:44 AM). But this is only a display device ( a 'mask'). The value stored will remain as 24:44:00 and that is what users who click into the field will see - whereupon they will be apt to become confused.

The revised formula I suggested above will convert time values which exceed 24 hours into *stored* values that most humans will recognise as a time of the day (or night as the case may be).

The matter of incrementing a date field (if any) to reflect the advance of the calendar associated with such a change is a separate question - however FWIW, the script formula you've suggested would fail if the time value were incremented (in one or more stages) by more than a further 24 hrs. To deal with a date simultaneously, I would suggest that as the time is incremented, the date be re-evaluated with a formula such as:

DateField + Int((TimeField + ExtraTime) / 86400)

- which will work for increments of 3600 (1 hour) but also for much larger values. However this is probably moot, as it's rather beyond the scope of yogert909's original question.

You're right. I never noticed that since all my times are always formatted / displayed as 12-hour (which works) and not 24-hour.

Thinking about it, FileMaker probably does that to allow you to be able to do Stop-watch type fields, rather than proper clock fields.

Thanks for the correction.