Combine String and Convert to Date&Time

Hello would like to ask, how do you combine string of different column and change it to data & time?
I tried using “column combiner” and then “string to data&time” but it return as “?”.

My data set variable are " year",“month”,“date” and “hour” and are in integers.I wish to combine all four into a single variable and set it as data&time formate

Hi @Elise_Goh , and welcome to the community.

You mentioned column, which would imply that you are using a table, but then you mentioned they’re variables (“year”, “month”, etc…). While the process would be similar in either case, the nodes to use will differ if we’re dealing with columns vs dealing with variables.

Can you perhaps share your workflow and sample data so we can take a look?

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Hi @bruno29a, Yeap sure ! Below is my sample data. I tried to combine them using “Column Combiner” and result is also shown below that it is combined successfully with delimiter however it came as “?” after I run through “String to Date&Time” I tried to change the format and only include “year” ,“month” and “date” but result came the same. I also tried to change the Locale but it is still the same

Sorry for the late reply
didn’t expect people to reply me actually
Thankyou so much for the reply!


Hi @Elise_Goh , can you provide the csv file? We can’t copy data from an image :slight_smile:

Also, if you could share your workflow, we can then pinpoint where it went wrong.

Going back to my original comment, it looks like you are dealing with columns here, no variables, is that correct?

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For String to Date&Time @Elise_Goh , I think it is expecting the format of YYYY-MM-DD as input, so for example, where you have “2010,12,25”, it should be “2010-12-25” instead.

You should be able to modify the delimiter from comma (",") to dash ("-") in the Column Combiner to accomplish this, if not, you can always do a String Manipulation instead and use join() to join the columns - you will need to convert the columns to string inside the join function. For example:
join(string($year$), “-”, etc…)

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Hi @bruno29a , thank you the attached below is my workflow

I don’t seem to be able to attach my csv file here. is there any other format I could convert it to to share it with you ?
I tried the way that you have mention previously as well, however, it don’t seem to work

would it work for excel?
Below is the excel version of my data set

Beijing_B.xlsx (400.8 KB)

It would’ve been easier for us if you shared the workflow file instead of a screenshot.
It’s difficult to tell what’s going on when we can’t actually open the workflow.

Being able to look at the configuration of the Column Combiner node, the String Manipulation node and the String to Date&Time nodes would be useful.

In any case, there are some things that I noticed

  1. I don’t see the point of the Number to String node
  2. You are using the comma as the delimiter in the Column Combiner node, so, the configuration of the String to Date&Time node needs to account for this
  3. I don’t see the point of the String Manipulation node

This can be accomplished with 3 nodes:

image

Here’s the data:

Here’s the column combiner node configuration and result:


Here’s the String to Date&Time node configuration and result


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Dear @elsamuel and @bruno29a, I am really sorry I thought to send the screenshot of if :sweat:
Thank you for helping me! very much appreciated!
Sorry for the inconvenience caused :tired_face: :cold_sweat:
Have a great day

Yours Sincerely,
Elise Goh

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