vbscript Function syntax error

Question

I've lifted the following code from a thread here DateDiff in days, hours and mins

but I'm getting a syntax error on the first line of code and I can't work out why because it looks the same as other function syntax I've written that works fine.

Function TimeSpan(dt1, dt2) 

        seconds = Abs(DateDiff("S",dt1, dt2)) 
        minutes = seconds \ 60 
        hours = minutes \ 60 
        minutes = minutes mod 60 
        seconds = seconds mod 60 

        if len(hours) = 1 then hours = "0" & hours 

        TimeSpan = hours & ":" & _ 
            RIGHT("00" & minutes, 2) & ":" & _ 
            RIGHT("00" & seconds, 2) 

End Function 

dt1 = ActiveRequest.Fields("CreationDate").Value
dt2 = ActiveRequest.Fields("1stcontactdatetime").Value

The error I receive is: "Error in control script at line 1: Syntax error (Microsoft VBScript compilation error): FuntionTimeSpan(dt1, dt2)"

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially if it helps me not do it again!

@Bond I have run the following code MsgBox(ScriptEngine) MsgBox(ScriptEngineBuildVersion) MsgBox(ScriptEngineMajorVersion) MsgBox(ScriptEngineMinorVersion) code I received the following VBScript, 17280, 5, 8 I believe it works with Windows Scripting Host — Peter
OK, so you're using WSH? Is it a VBS file or a WSF? Is your code contained in a single file or are you using script components? The "Error in control script" is not something I've seen often. — Bond
I am writing the script inside of another program and it's objects can be address and manipulated by VBScript. As such I don't really get to see my script as you've described but I'm inclined to think it's WSH based on the behaviour. — Peter
It's just odd because it sounds like it's erroring on the function declaration itself. Are you sure the program you're writing your script within doesn't already define a function named TimeSpan? — Bond

Noodles Noodles · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-01T20:46:42

Make it a sub or define a return variable.

Though my vbscript engine doesn't mind your code.

You are probably using the msscript.ocx (MS Script Control), it runs vbscripts in an application. Probably a help file in system32 for it.

Timespan is a class in the .NET framework.

The final thing is if using an edit control box, as notepad is and dialogs do, you get character problems. Paste into wordpad (based on a richtext edit control) so you can check for formatting edit controls ignore.

In the error message VBScript thinks there is no space between function and the function name.

vbscript Function syntax error

1 Answers