Convert a date string to a date in Applescript

gistfile1.applescript

-- Convert date function. Call with string in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format (time part optional)
to convertDate(textDate)
	set resultDate to the current date
	set the month of resultDate to (1 as integer)
	set the day of resultDate to (1 as integer)

	set the year of resultDate to (text 1 thru 4 of textDate)
	set the month of resultDate to (text 6 thru 7 of textDate)
	set the day of resultDate to (text 9 thru 10 of textDate)
	set the time of resultDate to 0

	if (length of textDate) > 10 then
		set the hours of resultDate to (text 12 thru 13 of textDate)
		set the minutes of resultDate to (text 15 thru 16 of textDate)

		if (length of textDate) > 16 then
			set the seconds of resultDate to (text 18 thru 19 of textDate)
		end if
	end if

	return resultDate
end convertDate

Hi,

if you try this script today or tomorrow, it will set wrong dates when you give the text (2018-02-01).

This results in setting the date to 1st of march. As febrary has only 28 days, you can't set the month to todays date. This results in a shift to march.

To always get a correct result, the script must start with this:

set resultDate to the current date
set the month of resultDate to (1 as integer)
set the day of resultDate to (1 as integer)

This is great.

So with Stephan's suggestion, the whole script would be:

-- Convert date function. Call with string in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format (time part optional)
to convertDate(textDate)

set resultDate to the current date
set the month of resultDate to (1 as integer)
set the day of resultDate to (1 as integer)

set the year of resultDate to (text 1 thru 4 of textDate)
set the month of resultDate to (text 6 thru 7 of textDate)
set the day of resultDate to (text 9 thru 10 of textDate)
set the time of resultDate to 0

if (length of textDate) > 10 then
	set the hours of resultDate to (text 12 thru 13 of textDate)
	set the minutes of resultDate to (text 15 thru 16 of textDate)
	
	if (length of textDate) > 16 then
		set the seconds of resultDate to (text 18 thru 19 of textDate)
	end if
end if

return resultDate

end convertDate

Thanks Stephen and Wayland, I've updated the Gist 👍