Hi Ariel

Thank you so much for helping me with the syntax problem. However when i tried the syntax you sent I get the result as follows:

time from hour time from sec

7:00 0:00

where as the actual number of hours is 10 hours between

timefrom timeto 07:30:00.00 17:30:29.00

How do i overcome this?

many thanks thara

Ariel Barak <abarakabarak@gmail.com> Sent by: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> 25/09/2009 11:58 Please respond to Ariel Barak <abarakabarak@gmail.com>

To SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU cc

Subject Re: seeking help with extract hours and seconds from date variables

Hi Thara,

In this situation, it helps if the variable is a date variable. Using the XDATE commands is your best bet....here is an example.

Compute TimefromHour=XDATE.HOUR(Timefrom). Compute TimefromSecond=XDATE.SECONDS(Timefrom). Execute.

Best, Ari

On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 8:47 PM, Thara Vardhan <vard1tha@police.nsw.gov.au > wrote:

Dear list members

I have two date variables - imported from an excel file with the format under format/cell/custom (d/mm/yyyy h:mm) as follows:

Timefrom Timeto 5-Feb-2009 07:30:00.00 5-Feb-2009 17:30:29.00

I have to extract only the number of hours and seconds from each of them. Both the variables are in date format in SPSS.

Do I use the substring function? Will that help if the variable is a date format? I tried to use date/time wizard but was not successful.

I would be grateful if someone could help me with this?

Many thanks

thara

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