Get dates from AUT?

Question

My Web-based application (like most) follows the browser locale to format dates.

So if you configure British English as the preferred language in the browser, the app will display dates in "DD/MM/YYYY" format.

Now QTP (ok, it´s VBScript that is the culprit) does not know about this. It strictly follows the local machine´s locale settings.

Unfortunately, that means that if my local machine is configured to German locale, and the app is in English (because the browser is configured this way), VBScript´s DateValue function will fail (because it expects "DD.MM.YYYY" format.

So what is an elegant way to convert an AUT-displayed date value to a native VBScript date so I can do calendar calculations and checks on it?

Except for switching the current user´s locale to one that matches the browser´s language, I don´t see a solution which avoids having to write decoders/encoders for all kinds of locales myself -- which looks like a huge overkill to me.

For example, a DateValue variant which lets me explicitely specify the locale to use would be great. Is there such a thing?

In general, its not just about dates, but every data item that is formatted differently depending on the locale (time specs, currency amounts, floats, ...).

Answer 1

Not sure about QTP, but the windows scripting host handles it via SetLocale

Option Explicit

Dim originalLocale
    originalLocale = GetLocale()

Dim aLocales
    aLocales = Array("en-us", "es-es", "de")

Dim locale, aDates, d

    For Each locale in aLocales
        WScript.Echo locale
        SetLocale locale

        aDates = Array( Date(), DateValue("01/02/2015"))
        For Each d in aDates
            WScript.Echo FormatDateTime(d, 1)
            WScript.Echo FormatDateTime(d, 2)
        Next 
        WScript.Echo "-------------------------------------------------"
    Next

    SetLocale originalLocale

Answer 2

While it is said (by Microsoft, see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176965.aspx) that GetLocale and SetLocale are usable only in WebPages, those functions are exactly what I was looking for. And they work within QTP.

To convert a date value from the AUT (being a string) to a VBScript date value, I

• call GetLocale to fetch and save the original locale
• call SetLocale to switch to the same locale as the browser´s (read from registry)
• use DateValue to convert the string to a native date (or use any other locale-sensitive routine)
• call SetLocale with the original setting to switch back to the original locale.

Interestingly, QTP always starts a test´s execution with the system locale active -- even if the last test execution did leave behind a different locale set active.

See f.e. https://support.microsoft.com/de-de/kb/232158/en-us