How to get/display time with minutes in a test item

Question

Dear experts,
Forms [32 Bit] Version 10.1.2.0.2 (Production)
Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
Oracle Toolkit Version 10.1.2.0.2 (Production)
PL/SQL Version 10.1.0.4.2 (Production)I've the following requirements.
In my form, there are three text items and one save button.
Text items named as
No_of_days --> Number data type
(user will enter number of days)
hours_limit --> Char data type with format mask (HH:MI);
(user will enter hours with minutes)
Upto_date_time --> date data type;
this field calculated as (No_of_days+hours_limit+sysdate)
User will enter No_of_days or hours_limit:
Based on the values I've to calculate Upto_date_time
Here is the problem:
1) If user doesn't enter hours_limit I want to show default time as " 04:00 PM"
2) If user enter hours_limit field we should allow them to enter in the following format
"HH24:MI" format;
what whould be suitable data type for hours_limit field..
I tried with char and i've set the format mask as ,
set_item_property('BLOCK3.hours_limit',format_mask,'HH:MI');
But I'm geeting the error
"FRM-50027:Invalid format mask for given datatype"
Please help to solve this problem,
Regards,
Karthi

Answer 1

Hi vansul ,
set_item_property('BLOCK3.hours_limit',format_mask,'HH:MI');
Format mast is only allowed to date data type fields.If i set the hours_limit item's data type as date , I'm getting the error message "ORA-01843:Not a valid month"..
How could i make this field only getting or display time with minutes?
Regards,
Karthi