# Formatting/Converting Siemens TIME type to display a timer **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [August 26, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/formatting-converting-siemens-time-type-to-display-a-timer/27788 "2019-08-26T23:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 2
**Author:** ![jlivingston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jlivingston](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jlivingston)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/formatting-converting-siemens-time-type-to-display-a-timer/27788/2 "2019-08-27T19:46:45Z")
Here you are, for 7.9 and 8 ( information is theirs in the below URL ) > [@SIEMENS Driver DATE\_AND\_TIME values](http://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/siemens-driver-date-and-time-values/5198/5): > > If you have access to the plc programm there is a workaround. You can use the system functions DT\_TOD and DT\_DATE to convert a date into days and time of day. The DATE is an 16-bit value with the days since 1990-01-01 and TOD is a 32-bit value with the count of milliseconds since midnight. These value can easily be converted to a java date in Ignition. I added a function to our plc programs that converts all DT values and stores them in a seperate datablock which is then read by Ignition. (See the message below instead- there are better ways) --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/formatting-converting-siemens-time-type-to-display-a-timer/27788)._