Converting numeric time values into date format

[AustinReeves]

Hello, 

I have run into a little problem regarding the formatting of dates within a ArcPro table. First off, the table is originally a .xlsx and has been converted using the "excel to table" tool. The original excel table has a date field with values in the format of "12/23/1998 14:40" and has upon using the tool, has been converted into the 5-digit numeric date scheme. These numeric dates have decimals i.e. "26507.6875" and is due to what I assume to be the time of day. I have found this thread Date field in Excel to Table tool , but upon trying the code I get the standard "999999" message (unexpected error). Any other suggestions on how I can get the dates back to the regular format? Thanks!

-Austin

[DanPatterson_Retired]

You should probably show your expression, especially to check on how you truncated your time from the string since the example in your thread was for dates, not datetime

[AustinReeves]

The expression I used was: datetime.datetime(1899,12,30) + datetime.timedelta(days = int(!Sample_Date_Time!))

My field containing the dates is the "Sample_Date_Time" and the rest was derived from that thread I linked. I'm not too familiar with python yet so would not be too sure where or what to change about this code. 

[JoeBorgione]

What Dan said. In the thread you reference I apply int() to a string. Is your 'decimal day' numeric or string?

[AustinReeves]

By 'decimal day' you are referring to the format that is being created in the ArcPro table (26507.6875) correct? I would assume this is a string as it contains decimals. 

[JoeBorgione]

26507.6875 could be  string; could be a float; could be a double.....

[AustinReeves]

Alright, I have looked in the fields editor and it is listed as a text data type, with the number format as numeric. This is what the original date format is being converted to via the "excel to table" tool. Thanks again for the help!

[JoeBorgione]

As I recall, when the excel table runs in an excel date field, as long as all of the fields have values it will bring them over as date fields. But... if any of those excel fields are empty, it converts the whole lot of them into the Microsoft date index and types the field as text.

[AustinReeves]

That is correct in that the excel table I'm working from has missing values for various rows. However, it would be quite tedious to sort through all 80,000 and something samples ha! I wonder of there's an excel function to weed these out...

[AustinReeves]

Have now filtered out all blanks and will see how this new table converts to ArcPro!