On my computer the date doesn't get reported.

•print DateTimeStamp()
  ..|20:33:50

For computer logging (not the best visually the best way of doing it) is:

091207203350 OR yearmonthdayhourminutesecond

This is because the time/date stamp can be sorted numerically. Also, since the string is a fixed length the individual parts can be obtained with a substring, i.e.

string year = mydatestring[0,1]

Yes .... caveat emptor (in this case "user beware") ... the date() and time() functions return values that are likely platform specific and formatted by what you pre-define in your system preferences. The above works on a Mac with the standard format settings. Certainly, using the datetime() function and converting to the format you recommend would be more appropriate - this task is left as an exercise for the reader :-).

A feature request for Igor Pro is to have functions such as year(), month(), day([inyear/inmonth]), hours([24/12]), minutes(), and seconds() that return respective string or numerical values independent of platform and operating system.

--
J. J. Weimer
Chemistry / Chemical & Materials Engineering, UAH

You could also use the following function instead:

Function/S DateTimeStamp()
	String dstr, tstr
 
	Variable timestamp = DateTime
	String sep_char = "."
 
	tstr = Secs2Time(timestamp, 3)
	dstr = Secs2Date(timestamp, -2, sep_char)
 
	// Replace numeric month with text abbreviation.
	String months = "Jan;Feb;Mar;Apr;May;Jun;Jul;Aug;Sep;Oct;Nov;Dec;"
	String month_abbreviation = StringFromList(str2num(StringFromList(1, dstr, sep_char)) - 1, months, ";")
	dstr = RemoveListItem(1, dstr, sep_char)
	dstr = AddListItem(month_abbreviation, dstr, sep_char, 1)
	dstr = RemoveEnding(dstr, sep_char)
	return (dstr + "|" + tstr)
End

It has the advantage of working using any time/date system settings, though the disadvantage is that the month strings are in English.

For the various year(), month(), etc. functions, you could use these:

Function year()
	return str2num(StringFromList(0, Secs2Date(DateTime, -2), "-"))
End
 
Function month()
	return str2num(StringFromList(1, Secs2Date(DateTime, -2), "-"))
End
 
Function day()
	return str2num(StringFromList(2, Secs2Date(DateTime, -2), "-"))
End
 
Function hour()
	return str2num(StringFromList(0, Secs2Time(DateTime, 3), ":"))
End
 
Function minute()
	return str2num(StringFromList(1, Secs2Time(DateTime, 3), ":"))
End
 
Function second()
	return str2num(StringFromList(2, Secs2Time(DateTime, 3), ":"))
End
 
Function/S GetDateTimeString()
	String dateTimeString = ""
	sprintf dateTimeString, "%.4d-%.2d-%.2d %.2d:%.2d:%.2d\r", year(), month(), day(), hour(), minute(), second()
	return dateTimeString
End

I think if we were to improve the ability to format date and time strings, instead of creating new year(), month(), etc. built in functions, it would be better to create a function like PHP's date() function, which, while complicates, allows you to format a date/time in pretty much any way imaginable.

Super! The secs2date function does just the job. Amazing that I missed it. As for the months being in English, substituting with month numbers would take care of that problem.

Thanks.

--
J. J. Weimer
Chemistry / Chemical & Materials Engineering, UAH

I've made changes corresponding to the suggestions. The version shown now should work across platforms and will return a date+time stamp in a YYMMDDHHMM format. To add SS (seconds) to the list, change the lines as shown below.

	gExp = "([0-9]+):([0-9]+):([0-9]+)"	
	SplitString/E=(gExp) secs2time(datetime,2), a, b, c
	tstr = a + b + c

--
J. J. Weimer
Chemistry / Chemical & Materials Engineering, UAH