Xbasic

CONVERT_TYPE Function

Syntax

Output_Value as A = Convert_Type(A Source, C RequestedType)

Arguments

SourceAny Type

A variable containing character, numeric, date, or logical data.

RequestedTypeCharacter

The requested data type. The type can be any Xbasic type listed below:

Type
Description
C

Character

D

Date

K

GUID

L

Logical

N

Numeric

T

Date Time

Y

Short Time

See Variable Data Types to learn more about Xbasic variable data types.

Returns

Output_ValueAny Type

Returns the value of Source variable as the requested data type. If the requested type is not supported or doesn't exist, the returned value will be a Character value.

Description

Converts a value from one data type to another.

Discussion

CONVERT_TYPE() converts variables from one data type to another, preserving the data if possible.

? convert_type("yes", "L")
= .T.

? convert_type(345, "C")
= "345"

? convert_type(now(), "C")
= "12/08/2018 02:32:17 27 am"

If the requested data type is not supported or invalid, CONVERT_TYPE() converts the value to a Character data type. For example:

' Converting to a dot variable "P" is not supported
result1 = convert_type(.F., "P")

' Data returned as type "C":
? typeof(result1)
= "C"

? result1
= "False"

See Also