convert date time to epoch time for sorting

[smolcj]

How to convert the date and time in the below format to epoch time?
201303140216
yyyymmddHHMM
here hour and minute is in 12 hours clock, so the time may be 02:16PM
tried converting it using
time=strptime(mytime,"%Y%m%d%I%M")
not seems to be working properly...
please help
Thank You

[martin_mueller · Accepted solution]

If your time is on a 12-hour clock you will need to list AM or PM in your date string, and read that into strptime with %p, without that the hour is ambiguous.

[smolcj]

Thanks martin.. I think I have to search some other field for sorting.. Thank you for your help .

[martin_mueller]

How do you expect the conversion to epoch to work then? Guessing?

If you have sufficient data and a known starting point you could extrapolate AM/PM over a stream of events based on the rollover from 11 to 12, flipping the A/P every time - that's not robust though.

[smolcj]

unfortunately i dont have AM or PM specification in the field 😞