In Shortcuts, how can I convert a time in plain text into a date?

[Oneechan69]

I want to be able to write a text like "155pm" and have that get turned into a date and then into an alarm on the same day with that time. I tried the set of actions shown below (link to shortcut), it works when I tried like "3pm" but not "155pm". Any ideas or solutions?

 

[iStorm]

"115pm" isn't really a valid time format. You'd need to use "1:15pm" instead.

Or depending on what you're using the shortcut for, swap out the 'Text' and 'Get dates from' actions with the 'Ask for Input' action to set the time that way. That will show iOS's time picker control.

 

[Oneechan69]

I want to input times that aren't properly formatted but are unambiguous, like "155pm".

 

[NoBoMac]

What @iStorm said.

Getting dates from text can be hit or miss in Shortcuts, even when what seems to be a valid format. For example, I have some code that processes timestamp values, "yyyyMMddhhmmss", and Get Dates will choke on that.



Per the description in the Format Date action and within Date objects themselves, Shortcuts are supposed to support date/time formats in RFC 2822, ISO 8601, or Unicode Technical Standard #35. Can look up those standards but what it basically boils down to is something like "1:15pm". Or in the above, "2024-08-24 09:30:05" would work.