asked on

Extract latest date from tab-limited file

Hi Experts,

Please assist in extracting latest date from tab delimited file.

I get this file weekly when system are polled by agent.
This agent just adds the date to current field 'SMS_R_System.Agent Time' though not consistent.

would like to extract the latest date from this field as mentioned in desired_result tab.
Attached is the file for current data and result_data

I am importing this file in Access.
conversion formula can be in excel or during import.

Thank you
Regards
Sample.xlsx

Scott McDaniel (EE MVE )

Import the Excel sheet into an Access table, add a new column named "Latest_Date" and then open a recordset based on that table. Then, use the Split function to examine the contents:

Dim rst As DAO.Recordset
Set rst = Currentdb.OpenRecordset("SELECT * FROM tmpImport")

Dim arr() As STring
Dim LatestDate As String
Dim i As Integer

Do Until rst.EOF
  LatestDate = "0"
   arr = Split(rst("SMS_R_System.Agent Time"), ",")
   For i =0 to Ubound(arr)
    If CDate(LatestDate) < arr(i) Then
      LatestDate = arr(i)
    End If
   Next i
  '/ LatestDate would now contain the most recent date for this line 
  rst("Latest_Date") = LatestDate
  rst.MoveNext
Loop

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Saqib Husain

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macentrap

ASKER

Thank you LSM Consulting and ssaqibh,

ssaqibh is yours excel based VBA, if so will try this one first over Access
Do I just paste the VBA ?
Thank You

Saqib Husain

Right-click on the sheet tab name
Select view code
Select Insert > Module
Paste the given code in this window
Close the window
Put this function in C2 =getmaxdate(B2)
Copy it down

aikimark

Thoughts:
* these dates are coming in as dd/mm/yyyy so the regional settings will affect how they are treated by the VB function

* If you are working with dates, you should use Date data types to reduce the number of CDate() invocations.

* You don't need to start with an artificial date, you can use the first date in the comma-delimited list as the first date. This also reduces the number of comparisons/iterations

The following is based on the LSM code.

Dim rst As DAO.Recordset
Set rst = Currentdb.OpenRecordset("SELECT * FROM tmpImport")

Dim arr() As STring
Dim LatestDate As Date
Dim DateItem As Date
Dim i As Long

Do Until rst.EOF
   arr = Split(rst("SMS_R_System.Agent Time"), ",")
   LatestDate = CDate(arr(0))
   For i =1 to Ubound(arr)
     DateItem = CDate(arr(i))
     If LatestDate < DateItem Then
      LatestDate = DateItem
    End If
   Next i
  '/ LatestDate would now contain the most recent date for this line 
  rst("Latest_Date") = LatestDate
  rst.MoveNext
Loop

Open in new window

Scott McDaniel (EE MVE )

Wouldn't your line here fail, if there is no data in the column:

LatestDate = CDate(arr(0))

My point in pre-setting the LatestDate value was to avoid that possibility.

aikimark

@LSM

If there is the possibility of no dates, the SQL would be changed to prevent zero-length (or Null) rows from populating the recordset. This would improve performance by reducing the amount of work to be performed and minimizing I/O.

macentrap

ASKER

Apologies, for late reply.
THought i closed it.

Thank you ssaqibh and Experts for help
ssaqibh: easy to follow.
I didnt try other solutions