How to change/convert the format of a timestamp?

[Eko palypse]

@Alan-Kilborn

actually I’m trying to avoid function lookups as those are expensive, especially when it involves
Python->C->Python conversion. But I must admit, in this case I don’t think that I gain any performance improvement, it might be even slower. Let’s test it. Will come back.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Eko-palypse

Okay…so I didn’t follow any of that, but I look forward to the come back. :)

[Eko palypse]

@Alan-Kilborn

so it is still a little bit faster - to be honest, haven’t expected it.

looped 1000 times over the same text
16.7720000744 <-- return m.group(0)
16.6819999218 <- return ‘{}:{}’.format(*parts[:])

[PeterJones]

My two comments would be:

1. if min > 60: = if the data is 60:00.000, it wouldn’t change. Make it if min >=60:
2. If the OP (or someone else) has mixed data, or had partially changed them, and came back later and tried the same script, weird stuff will happen. I’d recommend: editor.rereplace('(?<![:\d])\d+:\d+\.\d+',change_format), which adds a negative lookbehind to not match if there’s a colon or another digit before the \d+

[Eko palypse]

@PeterJones

YES - this is a bug it should > 59 - omg.
About mixed data you are right but this is always the question what if it looked like
hh.mm.ss.msec …

[PeterJones]

@Eko-palypse ,

Indeed, there are always more formats that might exist. I’ve only seen colon-separated in .srt files, so I think that keeping it generic enough that it won’t mess up an existing .srt, even if it does have some with hours and some without.

BTW: I had forgotten why I included the [:\d] rather than just : in my negative lookbehind: without the \d in the character class, 1:15:00.000 (which shouldn’t match) would partially match on 5:00.000, which would be even worse.

And running a test with 1:15:00.000, even with your simpler expression, works correctly (ie, doesn’t try to change it) – ahh, that’s because the minutes are less than 60. I guess unless there’s a strange 1:65:00.000, yours won’t be a problem. I guess yours is generic enough.

[Meta Chuh]

@Eko-palypse

I’m trying to avoid function lookups as those are expensive …

yes, i’m a bit short on money too at the moment … and don’t even dare to give me an (s.h) for this comment 😉

[Eko palypse]

@Meta-Chuh

:-D - always reminds me of this

[Meta Chuh]

@Eko-palypse

singing: ahaaaa, ahahahaaa … all the things i could do … ;-)

[Eko palypse]

@Meta-Chuh

I don’t understand all of this but what I got makes me laughing … :-D

[Meta Chuh]

@Eko-palypse
i also didn’t understand many of weird al yankovic’s insider jokes, but he made a lot of 80’s songs parodies, a funny one was “fat”, a parody of michael jacksons “bad” … or at least it used to be funny to me when i was a kid ;-)

[Meta Chuh]

btw: my apologies to you @Dana-Wright if you had to read everything after your “Worked like a charm! Thank you very much!” and eko’s explanation.

sometimes (but very few) we tend to have a little “after work chat” between regulars in public, which can be a bit off topic from time to time. i hope you didn’t mind.

[Meta Chuh]

one more song and then it’s enough for today:

>>> here’s a song <<< for @Scott-Sumner 😪😉😂

[Alan Kilborn]

@Meta-Chuh

As valuable as Scott’s (and Claudia’s) posts were, we have some really good new posters about scripting (example Eko, and Peter is developing as a Python person), so let’s not be too sad if they decide not to return.

[guy038]

Hello, @dana-wright, @eko-palypse, @alan-kilborn, @meta-chuh, @peterjones and All,

Just a bit late, but here are two regexes S/R which could achieve the goal !

Note that, regarding the initial timestamps, I will use the convention [M]MM:SS.mmm, where :

• [M]MM represents the number of minutes, from 00 to 119/179, with two or three digits

• SS represents the number of seconds, from 00 to 59, with two digits

• mmm represents the number of milliseconds, from 000 to 999, with three digits

---

Case A) If your file contains timestamps syntaxes, from 00:00.000 to 119:59.999, only ( so 0 <[M]MM < 2 hours ) , one solution could be :

• SEARCH A   (?<!:)(?:([0-5])|(6)|(7)|(8)|(9)|(10)|(11))(\d:\d{2}\.\d{3})(?=\s)

• REPLACE A (?{1}00:01):(?1\1)(?{2}0)(?{3}1)(?{4}2)(?{5}3)(?{6}4)(?{7}5)\8

Case B) If your file contains timestamps syntaxes, from 00:00.000 to 179:59.999, only ( so 0 < [M]MM < 3 hours ), a longer S/R is :

• SEARCH B   (?<!:)(?:([0-5])|((6)|(7)|(8)|(9)|(10)|(11))|((12)|(13)|(14)|(15)|(16)|(17)))(\d:\d{2}\.\d{3})(?=\s)

• REPLACE B (?{1}00)(?{2}01)(?{9}02):(?1\1)(?{3}0)(?{4}1)(?{5}2)(?{6}3)(?{7}4)(?{8}5)(?{10}0)(?{11}1)(?{12}2)(?{13}3)(?{14}4)(?{15}5)$16

---

As usual :

• Check the Wrap around option

• Select the Regular expression search mode

• Click on the Replace All button

Best Regards

guy038

P. S.

For instance :

• With the regexes A, the initial text, below :

00:00.000
23:52.984
39:43.529
59:59.999
60:00.000
78:08.168
91:38.524
103:05.216
111:41.465
119:59.999

becomes :

00:00:00.000
00:23:52.984
00:39:43.529
00:59:59.999
01:00:00.000
01:18:08.168
01:31:38.524
01:43:05.216
01:51:41.465
01:59:59.999

• With the regexes B, the following text :

00:00.000
23:52.984
39:43.529
59:59.999
60:00.000
78:08.168
91:38.524
103:05.216
111:41.465
119:59.999
120:00.000
147:33.150
160:00.058
179:59.999

becomes :

00:00:00.000
00:23:52.984
00:39:43.529
00:59:59.999
01:00:00.000
01:18:08.168
01:31:38.524
01:43:05.216
01:51:41.465
01:59:59.999
02:00:00.000
02:27:33.150
02:40:00.058
02:59:59.999

[Meta Chuh]

@guy038
it’s never too late, if people care … and thankfully many do 😃
thumbs up 👍

[PeterJones]

Thank you, @guy038. I had been trying the notation similar to (?(1)00:01) in the replace, rather than (?{1}00:01), which is why I wasn’t able to get the conditional to work right.