0

I'm working on an e-mail in SalesForce Marketing Cloud that uses AMPScript to populate and event start time. The data extension field that populates the AMP Script is set as a text field, unfortunately that means that times are being set to include seconds instead of just hours and minutes.

Here's what I started with:%%StartTime%% which populates as 2:00:00 PM

I tried the replace function%%=Replace(@StartTime,':00',' ')=%%however this left the field blank.

So I tried %%=FormatDate(%%StartTime%%, "HH:MM", "en-US")=%% and %%=FormatDate(2:00:00 PM, "HH:MM", "en-US")=%% was returned.

Ideas?

3 Answers 3

0

Should be this without the double %%:

%%=FormatDate(StartTime, "hh:mm tt, "en-US")=%%

or better:

%%[

var @startTime
set @startTime = AttributeValue("StartTime")
set @startTime = FormatDate(@startTime, "hh:mm tt", "en-US")

]%%

It's currently %%=iif(empty(@startTime), "HAMMER TIME!", @startTime)=%%

Reference: MSDN DateTimeFormatInfo Class

3
  • Awesome, but now the following displays: 14:01 en-U0 I removed the CultureCode and was left with just the time, but no AM or PM. How would I change this to 12hr from 24hr?
    – Dave
    Jun 29, 2016 at 20:44
  • I've updated my answer above. I think the mask should be hh:mm tt, not HH:MM. Jun 29, 2016 at 20:46
  • Seriously, you're a major help. Last bit, your update worked, but now for some reason the time is being set as 201pm vs. 200pm. Below is the output: 02:01 PM Also, is there a way to have the 0 be conditional so it's not displaying a time like the above?
    – Dave
    Jun 29, 2016 at 20:59
2

Adam had most of it right but you're getting the same error as I am - you're getting 14:01 because it looks like AMPscript is not differentiating between cases in formatdate(), so your mm is getting displayed as a 2 digit MM month (january in this case as it's the default start month if unspecified). I couldn't get AMPscript to recognize cased date/time format strings so my workaround which is not ideal was to do the following:

%%=DatePart(v(@begin_time), 'hour')=%%:%%=DatePart(v(@begin_time), 'minute')=%% %%=FormatDate(v(@begin_time), 'tt')=%%

That ends up getting me 2:00 PM

EDIT doing DatePart to return Minutes only results in a single 0 which is not helpful when displaying the time. Same works for 'mi' as well.

-2

Your were using an ampscript string call (%%) inside an ampscript block. This is not necessary.

Below the correct code to use :

%%=FormatDate(startTime,"", "hh:mm tt")=%%

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.