Invalid Date

[GaryBakker]

I am running Reunion 11.0.7 on an iMac 16gb machine running El Capitan 10.11.12.

I searched the Forum to try and see if anyone else has this problem and couldn't find a pertinent thread.

No matter what format of a date I try to enter, Reunion rejects it with "Reunion can't understand the date entry". Even when I click the button to use a Save Custom Format, it gives me an "invalid date format" message.

It correctly interprets what I enter though, because it provides the corresponding sort date.

I have tried:
mm/dd/yy
mm/dd/yyyy
mm-dd-yy
mm-dd-yyyy
mm dd yy
mm dd yyyy
dd Alphabeticmonth yyyy

Same error message no matter what I enter.

Any ideas regarding what I might need to do? Is there a setting I can't find?

Note: I just upgraded to El Capitan. I never had the issue prior to that, although it has been months since I have opened Reunion.

Any and all guidance would be appreciated.

[Mark]

Re: Invalid Date

Hi Gary,

Please go into System Preferences, then to Language & Region, and click the "Advanced..." button at bottom-right. In the window that drops-down, select the "Dates" tab.

Let us know what's selected for the formats listed there.

Thanks,

[GaryBakker]

Re: Invalid Date

Mark,

This is what is in System Preferences / Language & Region / Advanced / Dates:

Short: 1/5/15
Medium: Jan 5, 2015
Long: January 5,, 2015
Full: Monday, January 5,, 2015

Gary

[Bob White]

Re: Invalid Date

On the previous screen, what language, region and calendar type are you set at? Where you are showing two commas should not happen if you are using English, United States and Gregorian (assuming you are in the USA). Or is that just your typo? At any rate, it could be the double commas that is causing the problem.

[GaryBakker]

Re: Invalid Date

On the previous screen, what language, region and calendar type are you set at? Where you are showing two commas should not happen if you are using English, United States and Gregorian (assuming you are in the USA). Or is that just your typo? At any rate, it could be the double commas that is causing the problem.

Unfortunately (because it doesn't explain anything), the double comma in my previous post was simply a typo. Thanks for catching it.

The settings are English, United States, Gregorian.

It is weird because everything I read says that Reunion is pretty flexible with date entry formats.
Gary

[Gregg]

Re: Invalid Date

No matter what format of a date I try to enter, Reunion rejects it...

If you haven't shut down your Mac for a while, power it down and restart.

Also, try downloading and re-installing the Reunion 11 application. You can download Reunion 11 from here…

http://www.leisterpro.com/doc/version11/download.php

[GaryBakker]

Re: Invalid Date

If you haven't shut down your Mac for a while, power it down and restart.

Also, try downloading and re-installing the Reunion 11 application. You can download Reunion 11 from here…
http://www.leisterpro.com/doc/version11/download.php

1. Restarted my Mac: no change
2. Downloaded via your link and re-installed Reunion: no change
3. Restarted Mac again: no change

Then, as I was again entering the date to take a screen shot, I had a sudden realization that the date I have been trying to enter all this time was truly an invalid date -- September 31, 1932.

Sheesh. There are only 30 days in September. And of course, 9/30/1932 is accepted just fine.
Where is a headslap emoji when I need it?

I was blindly and unthinkingly entering the date that was provided in the document I was given. And it so happened that this date for this person was the very first date I entered after upgrading my Operating System and upgrading Reunion. So of course I assumed the problem was software related.

It didn't help that the error message says "Reunion can't understand the date entry" rather than simply saying "invalid date". And I never thought to try another date. I'd suggest perhaps modifying the error message to clarify exactly what is wrong.

But the mistake was mine. After spending 40 years in the software development industry, I should have suspected that the problem was an operator error rather than a software error. Maybe I have seen so many software errors that I am jaded.

Thanks to all who tried to help me resolve this enigma. You can all chuckle at my stupidity, but maybe this thread will help someone else who makes the same silly mistake as I did.

Anyway, consider this problem resolved.

[SGilbert]

Re: Invalid Date

We've all been there in one way, shape, or form.

[Kim]

Re: Invalid Date

LOL! Yup....sometimes the easiest fix is the one we are most likely to overlook!

[GaryBakker]

Re: Invalid Date

We've all been there in one way, shape, or form.

LOL! Yup....sometimes the easiest fix is the one we are most likely to overlook!

So true, so true.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Invalid Date

Sheesh. There are only 30 days in September. And of course, 9/30/1932 is accepted just fine.

On the other hand, Sweden did have a 30 February 1720.

Fortunately, Reunion will accept both this and 31 September 1932 as custom dates

[GaryBakker]

Re: Invalid Date

On the other hand, Sweden did have a 30 February 1720.

Fortunate, Reunion will accept both this and 31 September 1932 as custom dates

I did not know that about Sweden's weird February in 1712. Interesting, especially because it was due to screwing up by incorrectly having 1704 and 1708 as leap years. Thanks for the link.

But Reunion would not accept 31 September 1932 as a custom date. Every time it rejected it I tried saving a custom date and it said the date was invalid. At least that happens with my version.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Invalid Date

I did not know that about Sweden's weird February in 1712. Interesting, especially because it was due to screwing up by incorrectly having 1704 and 1708 as leap years. Thanks for the link.

I think Claus Tøndering's "Calendar FAQs" are wonderful: useful and fun.

But Reunion would not accept 31 September 1932 as a custom date. Every time it rejected it I tried saving a custom date and it said the date was invalid. At least that happens with my version.

Reunion certainly accepts it for me. It'll accept "the third Tuesday after the second week of Lent in 1865" too.

I think the problem is you are not changing the "Sort Date" to an acceptable one. When you enter "31 September 1932" and hit return, the "Custom Date" dialog box will pop up. You have to change the "Sort Date" in that dialog to a real date. That date could be "30 September 1932", or "September 1932", or even just "1932". The custom date will display, but the event will be sorted as if it occurred on the sort date...

[pfarrell]

Re: Invalid Date

Then, as I was again entering the date to take a screen shot, I had a sudden realization that the date I have been trying to enter all this time was truly an invalid date -- September 31, 1932.

Sheesh. There are only 30 days in September. And of course, 9/30/1932 is accepted just fine. Where is a headslap emoji when I need it?

I was blindly and unthinkingly entering the date that was provided in the document I was given.

This is fundamentally caused by not knowing what the true fact was. Should this be Sept 30? or maybe Oct 1? or maybe the month was wrong, the 31 part was correct?

Clearly we need fuzzy facts in our records.

[GaryBakker]

Re: Invalid Date

I think the problem is you are not changing the "Sort Date" to an acceptable one. When you enter "31 September 1932" and hit return, the "Custom Date" dialog box will pop up. You have to change the "Sort Date" in that dialog to a real date. That date could be "30 September 1932", or "September 1932", or even just "1932". The custom date will display, but the event will be sorted as if it occurred on the sort date...

Ah. Thanks!