I need a field containing 00:00:00 as numeric (not text) in VFP to export dbf files to Sage 300 2020

Question

I am creating a series of .csv files to import records in Sage 300 Payroll using low level file functions. There is one field called Valtime that requires 00:00:00 as a "number" not  text with Quotes on each side. I either need to find out how to create a time field with the date portion or a low level function to strip the Quotes from around each of the records. If I create a field called Valtime T(8) the format is   /  /    :  :  AM. 

Answer 1

You mentioned VFP in the title, do you want to do this in Visual FoxPro? The MSDN forums for VFP have been archived (and not sure, most likely not, they were brought to Q&A).

Anyway, I did a quick search and found https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/9e7d5e2a-7bbb-436f-96d8-0947df7df6c6/converting-date-field-amp-character-time-field-to-a-datetime-field?forum=visualfoxprogeneral 

although I don't like the very first solution (and the rest of the solutions I would not even consider). 

If you still want to get support for VFP, then I personally use levelextreme.com forum (this is the place where VFP developers hang out), you can also get support in tek-tips forum (haven't looked at that in years). 

BTW, did you simply try

CAST(timeColumn as DateTime) ? This may work, although I don't want to fire VFP to try it out myself.

Also, VFP has a concept of empty date and time while other database engines use NULL for the 'empty' date/time.

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Answer 2

Hi Steven Starace,

Your issue is related to VFP. I suggest you open a thread in VFP forums, People there will help you more effectively.

Besides,CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL) can convert an expression of one data type to another.
Hope this could help you.

Best Regards 
Echo 

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Answer 3

Echo,

The VFP forum in MSDN has been archived (no announcement was done prior to that). Can you please find out if it was brought to Q&A or just shut down completely?

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Answer 4

Hi Naomi,

Sorry, I did not see that the VFP forum has not been updated recently. I spent some time looking for a new VFP forum, but I didn’t find it. I also asked my colleagues for help. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t find it.

And I found that the VFP forum does not seem to have a Microsoft engineer to solve the problem, and I did not find the VFP forum in the Microsoft QA forum.

Best Regards 
Echo

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Answer 5

Hi Steven Starace,

Has your problem been solved? If it is solved, please mark the point that you 
think is helpful as an answer. This can help others who encounter similar problems.

Best Regards 
Echo   

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Answer 6

SQL Server has TIME, DATE and DATETIME2(n) datatypes; would this help? 

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