Xlate Proc Issues with Clock Format

[Danny Wheeler]

I am trying to write a Xlate file that brings in a VRL and outputs an HL7 message.  I have most of it working except for a piece of data I need to format.  In that field a date like “1/1/2013 12:00 AM” is coming in and I need to change it to “20130101” without the time piece.  I really don’t understand why this bit of code is not working.  In the testing tool I get an error “Expected integer but got “1/1/2013”  What am I doing wrong?

Code:

set var [lindex $xlateInVals 0]
set part [string range $var 0 [expr {[string first ” ” $var] -1 }]]
set xlateOutVals [clock format $part -format %Y%m%d]

Thank you.

Topic

[bill bearden]

Try this as your 3rd line.

Code:

set xlateOutVals [clock format [clock scan $part] -format %Y%m%d]

[Danny Wheeler]

Thank you so much!  That worked great.  Can you help me understand why that worked?  My understanding is that all variables in TCL are strings so I am not sure why it had this issue.  Sorry if I am way off base I am relatively new to Integration/Cloverleaf.

[Terry Kellum]

Clock scan interprets a textual date/time into a number of seconds since “The Epoch”.  Clock format takes that number and turns it into a textual date and time, formatted like the specification you give it.

clock scan can be tricky, so make sure you test thoroughly.

[Jim Kosloskey]

Also,

Get used to treating the xlateInxxx and xlateOutxxx lists as lists.

You did so in getting xlateOutVals but you did not in setting xlateOutVals.

While as long as your format does not contain any spaces in it you won’t have issues to make sure use something like the list or lreplace command to make sure what you are giving xlateOutVals is a list (even if it is a list of a single element).

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

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