Date time format in delimited text files

"[2020](236)19:35:11.981.685.000" is a messy format.

If the file is tab-delimited, then Igor will load "[2020](236)19:35:11.981.685.000" as a text wave and load the remaining columns (0x0073BBFE, 0xDB6BBEDA, 0x00000107, 0xDCA0, 0xF7E3) as numeric. You will then have to parse the text wave using sscanf or Grep.

Here is a function that parses the date/time using sscanf:

// timeStamp is, e.g., "[2020](236)19:35:11.981.685.000	0x0073BBFE	0xDB6BBEDA	0x00000107	0xDCA0	0xF7E3"
// Function result is Igor date/time value
// Example: Print ParseTimeStamp("[2020](236)19:35:11.981.685.000	0x0073BBFE	0xDB6BBEDA	0x00000107	0xDCA0	0xF7E3")
Function ParseTimeStamp(String timestamp)
	int year, dayOfYear, hour, minute, second, fracSecond
	String formatStr = "[%d](%d)%d:%d:%d.%d"
	sscanf timestamp, formatStr, year, dayOfYear, hour, minute, second, fracSecond
	// Print year, dayOfYear, hour, minute, second, fracSecond	// For debugging only
	
	double dt = Date2Secs(year, 1, 1)
	dt += dayOfYear*24*3600
	dt += 3600*hour + 60*minute + second + fracSecond/1000
	
	// Print Secs2Date(dt,-2) + "T" + Secs2Time(dt,3,3)	// For debugging only
	
	return dt
End

you can use sscanf to extract the numbers from the date string:

function getDateTime(s)
	string s
	variable year, day, hours, minutes, seconds
	sscanf s, "[%d](%d)%d:%d:%g", year, day, hours, minutes, seconds
	variable oneminute = 60
	variable onehour = 60 * oneminute
	variable oneday = 24 * onehour
	return date2secs(year, 1, 1) + day*oneday + hours*onehour + minutes*oneminute + seconds
end

oops, a bit too slow :)