Re: [Xlog-discussion] date format

[Andy Stewart]

On 07/20/2013 08:10 PM, Andy Stewart wrote:
> HI John,
>
> Thanks for your explanation and your patience.  I like to hear how
> people are using xlog.  It also helps me understand what to do to
> reproduce a problem, and then I have a method for testing potential fixes.
>
> I believe TSV is a generic tab separated variable format.  It is
> possible to modify the way the date is printed in the TSV file.  I want
> to be sure that my assumption about this being a generic format is
> correct so I don't break other things if I make this modification.
>
> I created my own TSV file and tried to import it into LibreOffice Calc,
> but it keeps putting it into LibreOffice Write.  I'm using the
> "File->Open" menu in Calc to read in the TSV file, but in the very long
> list of file types, I don't see TSV.  How did you read it in and get it
> to populate the spreadsheet?
>
> Thanks, and 73,
>
> Andy

Hi John,

I think I've got something working here!

In LibreOffice Calc:

a) To import the TSV file, choose "File->Open", and then "Text CSV" and 
give it a file name.

b) The "Text Import" GUI in LibreOffice Calc has several settings for 
"Separator Options", so I clicked "Separated by" and "Tab" (and no others).

c) Those choices caused the spreadsheet to be populated.

d) I then selected column A which contains the dates, and picked menu 
"Format->Cells".

e) I selected category "Date" and looked at the long list of possible 
date formats, none of which match the TSV format generated by xlog. 
However, there is a "Format Code" box in which I put "DD MMM YYYY". 
That format was applied to the entire column.

f) When I then selected only one cell in the date column, the format was 
recognized as a user defined date format, rather, I *think* it was 
recognized as a date format.  In the text entry box, I saw "`31 Jan 
2008" (previously, the leading "`" was missing).

g) Unfortunately, it appears that this user defined format only works in 
the file in which it was defined.  If one desired to import into many 
different spreadsheets, redefining the date format each time would be 
inconvenient.  If true, this suggests modifying the date in the TSV file 
to be one of the expected date formats, which would make the user's life 
much easier.  :-)

John, would you please try this and let me know if this works for you, 
at least as a temporary workaround.

Thanks(!), and 73,

Andy

--
Andy Stewart (KB1OIQ)
Founder:   Worcester Linux Users' Group
Founder:   Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group
President: PART of Westford, MA (WB1GOF)