Systems & Software Talk 

This is derived from a bucket of code that is also shared at SQAForums: www.sqaforums.com. I wrote a piece and then ptrussell_nc discovered a flaw in the original and fixed it. Too bad it isn't that easy to fix a flaw in a date - heh?

The purpose of this code fragment is as follows:
In general within this example, compare two dates of the format "mm/dd/YYYY" and then output the result in the "if" block. You would adapt this to your specific needs. It is best to keep the local script host system date capture in the Action section in the event you run a test thats spans more than one day.
Capture today's date from the script host system date

If you wish to compare dates of different formats, then you would adjust the formatting codes appropriately. The code may also need to be modified.
Note from ptr: In merging this code this rewritten it to be slightly more efficient and compact.
/* Authors:  JakeBrake & ptrussell_nc of SQAForums.com
   Version:  1.1
   Date:  1-Aug-2007 */
{
int rc;
int refrel;
char *today;
char *refDate;
/*  lr_eval_param is going to return a block of memory that we can use. We don't need to write those results to a temporary buffer. This next line saves today as mm/dd/yyyy in "dateToday" */

    lr_save_datetime("%m/%d/%Y", DATE_NOW, "dateToday");
    /* Below goes before the LR request that would capture the date */
    web_reg_save_param("CapturedDate", "LB=The left bound", "RB=The right bound", LAST);
    /* Save LR parms in two different "C" strings, then compare the two */
    today = lr_eval_string("{dateToday}");
    refDate = lr_eval_string("{CapturedDate}");
    lr_message("today %s  capturedate %s",  today, refDate);  // for debugging
    refrel = 0;  
    /*  -1 for before today, 1 for after today compare the years first */
    refrel = strcmp(refDate + 6, today + 6);
    /* if the years are the same (refrel = 0)  then compare the full dates */
    if (!refrel)  refrel = strcmp(refDate, today);
    /* Note well the text of the lr_message! */
    if (refrel < 0)  
            lr_message("refDate is before today ");
    else if (refrel > 0)  
            lr_message("refDate is after today ");
    else lr_message("refDate is today ");
    return 0;
}

Do you still think this is about the human dating experience? Are his or her parameters important to you? Do you wish to have a good correlating experience? Please let me refer you to here.

Oh arighty then.. you came here for dating pointers. Here are some! It's all in the fingernails:

1. If you bust him during a tabletop sleight-of-hand magic trick such that you see him tuck/pull the vanished/reappeared silver dollar to/from under a fingernail; he might not be right for you.
2. If she is a tabletop fingertip tapper and after a couple rhythmical percussive pieces she leaves a heap of wood chips, you should leave the restaurant alone. Take the wood chips with you for fireplace kindling.

Parameter parsing: web_reg_save_param() (WRSP) – SaveLen & SaveOffset;

Have you ever used WSRP to capture a value that looks similar to this? "123450_67811_909876543".

You capture it and then you must use it in a subsequent POST or GET. However, it might not be the same string each iteration which is why you correlated it in the first place! On top of that you might need to substitute the "_" underscore characters with one or more characters for the subsequent POST or GET such that it must look like this:

"123450%5F67811%5F909876543", where the instances of the underscores are replaced with "%5F" – for example. Now let us assume that the original numeric portion is 1) fixed length, and 2) the segments within are fixed length. If those criteria are not met, this will not work for you. Otherwise this situation allows us to use WRSP versus writing some custom "C" to manipulate character buffers. Before showing how to solve this situation with WRSP, let us take another look at the value, "123450_67811_909876543". Let us also say that a next script iteration might return this value to the WRSP, "100010_22255_900777040". Remember that you must now replace the two underscores (2 chars) with "%5F" or a total of six chars. Below is a way to accomplish this. As always, you would place the WRSP statements before the GET or POST that causes the value to be returned to your Vuser’s dynamic parameter.

Again, assuming the captured value is constant length and each segment within is fixed length and the value returned for said iteration is "100010_22255_900777040", we would use the below to setup three dynamic parameters from the same string; taking advantage of WRSP arguments "SaveLen" and "SaveOffset". In the below, use the same right and left boundaries for each WRSP (wrsp is used below. You would of course use web_reg_save_param();).

wrsp("Segment1", "LB=Left", "RB=Right", "SaveLen=6", "SaveOffset=0", LAST);

wrsp("Segment2", "LB=Left", "RB=Right", "SaveLen=5", "SaveOffset=7", LAST);

wrsp("Segment3", "LB=Left", "RB=Right", "SaveLen=9", "SaveOffset=13", LAST);

We now have three dynamic parameters as follows:

{Segment1} = "100010",  {Segment2} = "22255",  {Segment3} = "900777040"

Notice that we did not capture the underscore character.

Assuming you must now use the example "%5F" in lieu if the underscore character in a POST or GET, the below is an example of how you would proceed.

/* Then your subsequent GET or POST would look like this: */

web_submit_data (or web_url, etc.) ... ITEMDATA,

"Name=NamedItem", "Value= {Segment1}%5F{Segment1}%5F{Segment1}", ENDITEM,

The actual above value returned to the server in this example would be:

100010%5F22255%5F900777040

Circular heh?