BBC BASIC Programmers' Reference

by Richard Russell, May 2006

One of the standard controls provided by the Windows API is the Date and Time Picker. This can be used when you want the user to enter a date or a time into your program. For date entry Windows can display a small clickable calendar:



You can display the Date/Time Picker either on your main output window or in a dialogue box.

To display a Date/Time picker on the output window use code similar to the following:

        INSTALL @lib$+"WINLIB5"
        ICC_DATE_CLASSES = &100
 
        DIM iccx{Size%, ICC%} : REM INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX structure
        iccx.Size% = 8
        iccx.ICC%  = ICC_DATE_CLASSES
        SYS "InitCommonControlsEx", iccx{}
 
        hdtp% = FN_createwindow("SysDateTimePick32", "", x%, y%, cx%, cy%, 0, style%, 0)

Here x%,y% is the position at which the Date/Time picker should be displayed, cx%,cy% is the size of the Date/Time picker window and style% is one of the following values (the figures in brackets are suggested window sizes for the different styles):

• 0 - to display a date picker using the short date format (cx%=88, cy%=20)
• 4 - to display a date picker using the long date format (cx%=120, cy%=20)
• 9 - to display a time picker (cx%=72, cy%=20)

To read the currently selected date or time from the control use code similar to the following:

        DIM systemtime{Year{l&,h&}, Month{l&,h&}, DayOfWeek{l&,h&}, Day{l&,h&}, \
        \              Hour{l&,h&}, Minute{l&,h&}, Second{l&,h&}, Milliseconds{l&,h&}}
 
        DTM_GETSYSTEMTIME = &1001
        SYS "SendMessage", hdtp%, DTM_GETSYSTEMTIME, 0, systemtime{}
 
        day% = systemtime.Day.l&
        month% = systemtime.Month.l&
        year% = systemtime.Year.h& * 256 + systemtime.Year.l&
        hour% = systemtime.Hour.l&
        minute% = systemtime.Minute.l&
        second% = systemtime.Second.l&

To close the control use the following code:

        PROC_closewindow(hdtp%)

To display a Date/Time picker in a dialogue box use code similar to the following:

        INSTALL @lib$+"WINLIB2"
        ICC_DATE_CLASSES = &100
        WS_VISIBLE = &10000000
        WS_CHILD = &40000000
        WS_GROUP = &20000
        BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON = 1
 
        DIM iccx{Size%, ICC%} : REM INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX structure
        iccx.Size% = 8
        iccx.ICC%  = ICC_DATE_CLASSES
        SYS "InitCommonControlsEx", iccx{}
 
        dtpdlg% = FN_newdialog("Date/Time picker", 20, 20, 150, 140, 8, 300)
 
        PROC_dlgctrl(dtpdlg%, "", 101, 8, 8, 64, 14, \
        \            WS_VISIBLE + WS_CHILD + style%, "SysDateTimePick32")
 
        PROC_pushbutton(dtpdlg%, "OK", 1, 12, 120, 56, 14, WS_GROUP + BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON)
        PROC_pushbutton(dtpdlg%, "Cancel", 2, 80, 120, 56, 14, 0)
 
        PROC_showdialog(dtpdlg%)

Where style% has one of the values listed above. Again the size of the Date/Time picker control will need to be modified according to the style, but here the size is specified in dialogue box units rather than pixels (see the main BBC BASIC for Windows documentation).

To read the currently selected date or time from the control when the OK button is clicked use code similar to the following:

        click% = 0
        ON SYS click% = @wparam% AND &FFFF : RETURN
 
        REPEAT
          WAIT 1
        UNTIL !dtpdlg% = 0 OR click% = 1 OR click% = 2
 
        ON SYS OFF
 
        DTM_GETSYSTEMTIME = &1001
        IF click% = 1 THEN
          DIM systemtime{Year{l&,h&}, Month{l&,h&}, DayOfWeek{l&,h&}, Day{l&,h&}, \
          \              Hour{l&,h&}, Minute{l&,h&}, Second{l&,h&}, Milliseconds{l&,h&}}
 
          SYS "SendDlgItemMessage", !dtpdlg%, 101, DTM_GETSYSTEMTIME, 0, systemtime{}
 
          day% = systemtime.Day.l&
          month% = systemtime.Month.l&
          year% = systemtime.Year.h& * 256 + systemtime.Year.l&
          hour% = systemtime.Hour.l&
          minute% = systemtime.Minute.l&
          second% = systemtime.Second.l&
        ENDIF
 
        PROC_closedialog(dtpdlg%)

You will want to use ON ERROR and ON CLOSE statements to ensure that “PROC_closedialog” is called even if the program is terminated unexpectedly.