on 5/21/03 1:37 PM, Mark Lively wrote: >> For example, if I want to coerce a a string (i.e. "mmddyyyy") into a >> date, I'm completely beholden to Tanaka's to do that. >> >> Any clues? >> > It can be done in vanilla applescript. It won't be fast. > > on mm_to_date(aDate) > if month of aDate = January then return "01" > if month of aDate = February then return "02" ... <snip> WOW! That's a mouthful of code! You're a lifesaver. But now I'm really starting to mourn the loss of Tanaka's. The stampToDate command can handle a string to date coercion as simply as this: set dateString to "05212003" set myDay to ((characters 3 thru 4 of dateString) as string) set myMonth to ((characters 1 thru 2 of dateString) as string) set myYear to ((characters 7 thru 8 of dateString) as string) set myTime to "000000" set myDate to StampToDate (myYear & myMonth & myDay & myTime) - WES