Save text file with current date and time filename

Ask Questions
, ,
1

Hi,
I would like to create a file on the plc user partition with current date and time as name.
If I simply use DTGetTime_0 it does not work because the string has spaces and undesired characters, so file generation fails.
I eventually used
DTStructureGetTime
to get date and time as structure, but now I have to do a lot of subsequent CONCAT to create the final string for the filename.
Is there any smarter (and faster) way to achieve that?
thanks

2

Hi,

you could still use DTGetTime_0 and while-loop the returned string to check for any empty spaces or undesired characters with the FIND() function (I assume you mean the hash in datetime string “DT#2025-01-…”).

I think this would reduce the amount of code lines since it’s a loop (and you could easily create the code with ChatGPT :wink: ).

I’m not aware if there any other, easier possibilities.

3

thanks, I will try that

4

Hi,

as long as you need the “date and time filename” as readable information, you have to do some coding to format code to transform the datetime information into a filename suitable string.

Nevertheless an additional info about that:
if you don’t need to have the date and time string in a human readable format, for example because you use date and time only to avoid double filenames, then you could use a more easy way.
Since DATE_AND_TIME is just an interpretation of a 4-byte value meaning “seconds since 1.1.1970”, you could

  • memcopy the DATE_AND_TIME information to an UDINT variable
  • transform the UDINT to a STRING

… not human readable, but the string also will change every second :wink:

image
image1013Ă—340 11.8 KB

5

that would be easy, but as you know requirements are never so easy :joy:
customer wants to have filenames with that format, so it should be human readable

1 Like
6

Hi @c563049

Can you try this function from this IecString library?

image
image969Ă—610 19.2 KB

You can format date and time for any requirement.

4 Likes
7

woooow!!! you saved my day! thank you very much that’s perfect!

just out of curiosity: I understand that we are talking about a string library that will not hurt anyone, but how safe is to use external libraries found on github?

8

I would categorize the safety of external code this way:

  • For a source-available: as safe as your ability to read and understand the code
  • For a binary-only library: as safe as your trust in that third-party

Best regards

3 Likes