Undefined date field value "NA"
in [Project]
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From: Binoy on 24 Dec 2008 14:23 Hi, Can someone kindly let me know how I can retrieve the text that Microsoft Project uses for empty date fields using VBA, which works across different regional settings? For e.g. for a US English installation, the undefined date value is displayed as "NA". Is there any property of the activeProject object that I could use for this purpose? Currently, we use activeProject.Tasks(1).getField(pjTaskStart1) at the time of initialization of project, but this results in different results on different machines (NA on most, system date on a few) Thanks, Binoy
From: Jim Aksel [MVP] on 24 Dec 2008 16:24 I do not know of a universal value or property that you can access. What I do is try to compare it to something else. For example, a completed task will have [Finish]=[Actual Finish]. A task that is not yet finished will have [Actual Finish]="NA" or what ever "NA" is for the given language pack. So, if I want to test if a task is complete, I don't test for [Actual Finish]="NA" ... Instead I test if [Finish]=[Actual Finish]. For certain the value of [Finsih] can never equal NA. However, that gets a little trickier for things like baselines... how do I know if I have a baseline date? One other thing I found was when testing for "NA", I recognized that "NA" was either smaller than the smallest possible date, or larger than the largest possible date so I tested on that. However, I found in VBA and VB.NET the logic seems to reverse. Hope that helped. Post back if you can't work around it. Jim Aksel, MVP "Binoy" <Binoy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:54DDB5AB-6CEC-4DCE-90B7-6E61862900D8(a)microsoft.com... > Hi, > > Can someone kindly let me know how I can retrieve the text that Microsoft > Project uses for empty date fields using VBA, which works across different > regional settings? For e.g. for a US English installation, the undefined > date > value is displayed as "NA". > > Is there any property of the activeProject object that I could use for > this > purpose? Currently, we use activeProject.Tasks(1).getField(pjTaskStart1) > at > the time of initialization of project, but this results in different > results > on different machines (NA on most, system date on a few) > > Thanks, > Binoy
From: Binoy on 25 Dec 2008 04:15 Hi Jim, Thank you for replying. The suggested workaround however will not work in my case. What I have is a function which takes a variant (dates) as an argument and then converts it into a specific date format (which is then returned as a string). Before I parse the date, I need to verify two conditions on the input argument, 1) it is not empty 2) it is defined (i.e. not "NA") I need some way to accomplish (2) which works across all regional settings/locales. What I am thinking is that I could take this value from some unused date field in Microsoft Project for comparison. Please advise. Thanks in Advance & Merry Xmas, Binoy "Jim Aksel [MVP]" wrote: > I do not know of a universal value or property that you can access. What I > do is try to compare it to something else. > For example, a completed task will have [Finish]=[Actual Finish]. A task > that is not yet finished will have [Actual Finish]="NA" or what ever "NA" is > for the given language pack. > > So, if I want to test if a task is complete, I don't test for [Actual > Finish]="NA" ... Instead I test if [Finish]=[Actual Finish]. For certain > the value of [Finsih] can never equal NA. > > However, that gets a little trickier for things like baselines... how do I > know if I have a baseline date? One other thing I found was when testing > for "NA", I recognized that "NA" was either smaller than the smallest > possible date, or larger than the largest possible date so I tested on that. > However, I found in VBA and VB.NET the logic seems to reverse. > > Hope that helped. Post back if you can't work around it. > > Jim Aksel, MVP > > "Binoy" <Binoy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:54DDB5AB-6CEC-4DCE-90B7-6E61862900D8(a)microsoft.com... > > Hi, > > > > Can someone kindly let me know how I can retrieve the text that Microsoft > > Project uses for empty date fields using VBA, which works across different > > regional settings? For e.g. for a US English installation, the undefined > > date > > value is displayed as "NA". > > > > Is there any property of the activeProject object that I could use for > > this > > purpose? Currently, we use activeProject.Tasks(1).getField(pjTaskStart1) > > at > > the time of initialization of project, but this results in different > > results > > on different machines (NA on most, system date on a few) > > > > Thanks, > > Binoy > >
From: "Steve House [MVP]" sjhouse at hotmail dot on 25 Dec 2008 16:56 What is the actual end result you're trying to achieve here - load a variable with the actual text used in the current version so you can display it later or are you trying to create a constant to later compare to see if a field either contains a date entry or displays "NA" or the local version equivalent? If the object is to test whether a date field contains a valid date or is displaying NA, try the IsDate function. For example, in a project file containing 1 task, the expression IsDate(ActiveProject.Task(1).ActualFinish) returns True if a finish date has been entered and False if it's showing NA. Does that help get you where you need to be? -- Steve House [Project MVP] MS Project Trainer & Consultant Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs "Binoy" <Binoy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:54DDB5AB-6CEC-4DCE-90B7-6E61862900D8(a)microsoft.com... > Hi, > > Can someone kindly let me know how I can retrieve the text that Microsoft > Project uses for empty date fields using VBA, which works across different > regional settings? For e.g. for a US English installation, the undefined > date > value is displayed as "NA". > > Is there any property of the activeProject object that I could use for > this > purpose? Currently, we use activeProject.Tasks(1).getField(pjTaskStart1) > at > the time of initialization of project, but this results in different > results > on different machines (NA on most, system date on a few) > > Thanks, > Binoy
From: John on 25 Dec 2008 20:04
In article <C258E62E-1691-4A3D-883B-DFD92BE8D853(a)microsoft.com>, Binoy <Binoy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > Hi Jim, > > Thank you for replying. > > The suggested workaround however will not work in my case. What I have is a > function which takes a variant (dates) as an argument and then converts it > into a specific date format (which is then returned as a string). > > Before I parse the date, I need to verify two conditions on the input > argument, > 1) it is not empty > 2) it is defined (i.e. not "NA") > > I need some way to accomplish (2) which works across all regional > settings/locales. What I am thinking is that I could take this value from > some unused date field in Microsoft Project for comparison. > > Please advise. > > Thanks in Advance & Merry Xmas, > Binoy Binoy, Probably the easiest way to determine if a Project field has a valid date is by using the IsDate function. If the value in the field, (including fields with "NA"), can be converted to or is recognized as a date, the function will return "true". If not, it will return "false". This should also make the code language independent. Once you know you have a valid date, you can then do your conversion to whatever date format you want. Hope this helps. John Project MVP > > "Jim Aksel [MVP]" wrote: > > > I do not know of a universal value or property that you can access. What I > > do is try to compare it to something else. > > For example, a completed task will have [Finish]=[Actual Finish]. A task > > that is not yet finished will have [Actual Finish]="NA" or what ever "NA" > > is > > for the given language pack. > > > > So, if I want to test if a task is complete, I don't test for [Actual > > Finish]="NA" ... Instead I test if [Finish]=[Actual Finish]. For certain > > the value of [Finsih] can never equal NA. > > > > However, that gets a little trickier for things like baselines... how do I > > know if I have a baseline date? One other thing I found was when testing > > for "NA", I recognized that "NA" was either smaller than the smallest > > possible date, or larger than the largest possible date so I tested on > > that. > > However, I found in VBA and VB.NET the logic seems to reverse. > > > > Hope that helped. Post back if you can't work around it. > > > > Jim Aksel, MVP > > > > "Binoy" <Binoy(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > > news:54DDB5AB-6CEC-4DCE-90B7-6E61862900D8(a)microsoft.com... > > > Hi, > > > > > > Can someone kindly let me know how I can retrieve the text that Microsoft > > > Project uses for empty date fields using VBA, which works across > > > different > > > regional settings? For e.g. for a US English installation, the undefined > > > date > > > value is displayed as "NA". > > > > > > Is there any property of the activeProject object that I could use for > > > this > > > purpose? Currently, we use activeProject.Tasks(1).getField(pjTaskStart1) > > > at > > > the time of initialization of project, but this results in different > > > results > > > on different machines (NA on most, system date on a few) > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Binoy > > > > |