Question

I need to use something like %DATE% in a topic template but instead of the entire date I only want "year". The docs do not indicate if %DATE% can return a hard text "year" - trying it did not result in anything expected. Right now I am trying to munge something together with %CALC%.

Thanks

Environment

TWiki version:	TWikiRelease01Feb2003
TWiki plugins:	DefaultPlugin, ActionTrackerPlugin, BeautifierPlugin, EditTablePlugin, ExplicitNumberingPlugin, FindElsewherePlugin, InterwikiPlugin, PowerEditPlugin, QuickCalendarPlugin, SessionPlugin, SmiliesPlugin, SpreadSheetPlugin, TWikiDrawPlugin, TablePlugin, TopicVarsPlugin, TreePlugin
Server OS:	Unix (solaris)
Web server:	Apache/1.3.26 Server at twiki.sps.mot.com Port 80
Perl version:	5.6.0
Client OS:	WindowsXPPro
Web Browser:	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007

-- SteveRJones - 09 Feb 2004

Answer

I guess I kind of answered my own question but it took leveraging the SpreadSheetPlugin features. In my topic template I have:

<!-- Calculate only the year based on when this topic was created
   %CALC{"$SET(YEAR, $REPLACE(%DATE%, 1, $EVAL($LENGTH(%DATE%)-4),) )"}%
-->

<!-- Check it -->
CURRENTDATE = %DATE% %BR%
CURRENTYEAR = %CALC{"$GET(YEAR)"}%

The template hardcodes the entire date, vis-a-vis when the topic is created, via %DATE%. I then used %CALC% to extract just the year. Does anyone have a more elegant way of doing this?

---

Will not have %GMTIME{"$year"}% the same effect?
CURRENTYEAR = 2026

-- FranzJosefSilli - 11 Feb 2004

The problem is that putting %GMTIME{"$year"}% into a topic template results in %GMTIME{"$year"}% being put into the new topic. Using %DATE% in a topic template results in a hard date string in the new topic. So my example above, if the topic were created today the new topic would render as:

<!-- Calculate only the year based on when this topic was created
   %CALC{"$SET(YEAR, $REPLACE(11 Feb 2004, 1, $EVAL($LENGTH(11 Feb 2004)-4),) )"}%
-->

-- SteveRJones - 11 Feb 2004

Well, now I understand what you're trying. Can't the same thing you do be done by using

  %CALC{"$FORMATGMTIME( $TIME( %DATE% ), $year )"}%

%DATE% will be expanded to the full date string when creating the new topic based on the template and CALC formats that string into the desired year. --> no need to store it temporarily, just read the whole manual.

-- FranzJosefSilli - 11 Feb 2004

Yes, I suppose that would work too, and so might:

<!-- Calculate only the year based on when this topic was created
   %CALC{"$REPLACE(%DATE%, 1, $EVAL($LENGTH(%DATE%)-4),) )"}%
-->

I guess the real issue then becomes, which way is more expensive? Having 25 %CALC{"$FORMATGMTIME( $TIME( 2026-05-23 ), $year )"}% statements in a topic

OR

having 1 %CALC{"$SET(YEAR, $FORMATGMTIME( $TIME( 2026-05-23 ), $year ) )"}% statement

and

25 %CALC{"$GET(YEAR)"}% statements? It may not make a difference. I typically use variables just to assist in readability and debugging. But in essence I was looking for something like %DATE{$year}% that would generate the hard text year.

Thanks for the feedback, I think I'll file this as ANSWERED.

-- SteveRJones - 11 Feb 2004