>>>>>I'm wanting to store a datetime as compactly as possible. When you create a datetime field in a table, it takes 8 bytes but if you do a TTOC(), it takes 20 characters. Is there a way of getting that 8 byte value from the DBF and easily convert it back and forth?
>>>>
>>>>I don't understand what you're asking. Storing as DateTime is the compact way.
>>>>
>>>>Tamar
>>>
>>>I should have been clearer - I need to store this as a text field in a lookup table holding all my settings. I was hoping to store it in a few characters without making up my own scheme.
>>
>>TTOC(DATETIME(),1)
>>
>>is the string format of a time to have it index~ and sortable.
>
>Not bad - only 14 characters, easily converted to integer and sortable - Thanks!

Don't convert to an integer

Digits in an int = 9.33

?log10(2147483647)

You could convert to currency as the number of digits for the integer part of currency is 14.9649

?log10($922337203685477)

But that is also taking 8 bytes - as the DateTime field