mt (Mask Time) Processing Code

The mt processing code invokes the time conversion function to convert external time representations to internal format or to convert internal time values to one of a variety of external time formats.

The internal time format is the number of seconds from midnight. The external time format is 24-hour military format (for example, 23:25:59) or 12-hour format (for example, 11:25:59PM).

For input-conversion, the time is entered with am or pm immediately following the numeric time. If none is entered, am is assumed. On output, am or pm is always printed immediately following the numeric time.

NOTE	12:00AM is midnight and 12:00PM is noon. AM and PM are ignored on input if the mt code is specified. Illegal values are converted to null on input.

When used as an input-conversion, the mt code validates the time and converts it to the internal format of seconds from midnight. When updating a field controlled by an mt conversion, the / character can be used to insert the current time into the attribute.

System Processors	Update, List
Code Type	Attribute Defining
Dictionary Attributes	Input Conversion, Output Conversion, Correlative

Syntax

mt{h}{s}

Parameter(s)

h	Specifies a 12-hour clock. Default is (military) a 24-hour clock. When specifying the h parameter, the range of values for the internal format representation are from 0 to 86399.
s	Includes seconds in output value. If omitted, seconds are not listed on output.

Example(s)

Data	Code	Sample Output
3600	mt	01:00
3600	mth	01:00am
3600	mts	01:00:00
3600	mths	01:00:00am
46800	mt	13:00
46800	mth	01:00pm
3630	mts	01:00:30
46800	mths	01:00:00pm