>>I am just about completing a fairly extensive import utility of CSV files, and have a potential concern about this type of date found as a character (I was thinking there was a built in VFP way to make this conversion, but can't remember what it was) :
>>
>>December 12, 2016 or Dec. 12, 2016
>>
>>If I allow a user to select the above as a Date field, I need to convert it to a normal 12/12/2016 which is stored as a date field in the table. Anyone know the best way to do this? I will not know ahead how the date is stored and will be testing it before appending it to the actual date field in the table.
>
>idea...
>

>DEFINE CLASS...
>   cMonths=",jan,feb,mar,apr,may,jun,jul,aug,sep,oct,nov,dec,"
>
>   PROCEDURE FormatDT(INPREF lcDT)
>      *!*   <pdm_sc_yes/>
>      *!*   <pdm_dd_yes/>
>      LOCAL liMonth,lcRet
>      liMonth=ATC(","+LEFT(m.lcDT,3)+",",This.cMonths)
>      liMonth=OCCURS(",",LEFT(This.cMonths,m.liMonth))
>
>      IF AT(":",m.lcDT)>0 && Time 
>         lcRet=EVALUATE("{^"+STR(YEAR(DATE()))+"-"+;
>               LTRIM(STR(m.liMonth,2))+;
>               "-"+LTRIM(SUBSTR(m.lcDT,5,2))+" "+SUBSTR(m.lcDT,8,5)+":00}")
>      ELSE
>         lcRet=EVALUATE("{^"+SUBSTR(m.lcDT,9,4)+"-"+;
>               LTRIM(STR(m.liMonth,2))+;
>               "-"+LTRIM(SUBSTR(m.lcDT,5,2))+" 00:00:00}")
>      ENDIF
>      RETURN m.lcRet
>   ENDPROC
>ENDDEF
>
>

Thanks Martina.... good suggestion and I will file this for future reference.