A better CDate for VB6

Question

We have a a VB6 app (in a COM component) which uses CDate() to take a string and cast it to a Date, for storing in a database.

Depending on if we want the applicatio

Answer 1

This should be close, though it hardcodes the delimiter as "/" and windows YY years at 50:

Private Function ParseDate(ByVal DateString As String, _
                           ByVal DatePattern As String) As Date
    'DateString:  i/j/k formatting.
    'DatePattern: i/j/k formatting, each to be:
    '               M or MM for month position.
    '               D or DD for day position.
    '               YY or YYYY for year position, if YY
    '                 then century windowed at 50.
    Dim strStringParts() As String
    Dim strPatternParts() As String
    Dim intPart As Integer, intScore As Integer
    Dim intMonth As Integer, intDay As Integer, intYear As Integer
    Const DELIM As String = "/"
    Const YYWINDOW As Integer = 50

    strStringParts = Split(DateString, DELIM)
    strPatternParts = Split(UCase$(DatePattern), DELIM)
    For intPart = 0 To UBound(strStringParts)
        If intPart > UBound(strPatternParts) Then
            Err.Raise 5, "ParseDate"
        End If
        Select Case strPatternParts(intPart)
            Case "M", "MM"
                intMonth = CInt(strStringParts(intPart))
                intScore = intScore Or &H1
            Case "D", "DD"
                intDay = CInt(strStringParts(intPart))
                intScore = intScore Or &H2
            Case "YY"
                intYear = CInt(strStringParts(intPart))
                If 0 > intYear Or intYear > 99 Then
                    Err.Raise 5, "ParseDate"
                End If
                intYear = intYear + IIf(intYear < YYWINDOW, 2000, 1900)
                intScore = intScore Or &H4
            Case "YYYY"
                intYear = CInt(strStringParts(intPart))
                If 100 > intYear Or intYear > 9999 Then
                    Err.Raise 5, "ParseDate"
                End If
                intScore = intScore Or &H4
            Case Else
                Err.Raise 5, "ParseDate"
        End Select
    Next
    If intScore = &H7 Then
        ParseDate = DateSerial(intYear, intMonth, intDay)
    Else
        Err.Raise 5, "ParseDate"
    End If
End Function

Validation may not be perfect, but it ought to be close. It throws "Invalid procedure call or argument (Error 5)" on bad inputs.