setting variable with function's result

Question

I call the following function with

Call GameTimer(FormatDate(objLiveCommentary("DateFirstStarted"), "WithTime"), 
               FormatDate(objLiveCommentary("DateSecondStarted"), "WithTime"), 
               "Soccer")

And it prints results as 23, 35, 64, 90. I want to take this result and store it as

CurrentGameTime = 

because I will save CurrentGameTime to my database. How can I do it?

Function GameTimer (FirstStarted, SecondStarted, GameType)

If GameType =   "Soccer"    Then
    DateFirstStarted    = DateDiff("n", FirstStarted, FormatDate(NOW(), "WithTime"))
    DateSecondStarted   = DateDiff("n", SecondStarted, FormatDate(NOW(), "WithTime"))

    If DateFirstStarted <= 45 Then
    Response.Write DateFirstStarted
    ElseIf DateFirstStarted <= 45 Then
    DateFirstStarted
    ElseIf DateSecondStarted <= 45 Then
    Response.Write DateSecondStarted + 45
    ElseIf DateFirstStarted <= 45 Then
    DateFirstStarted
    Else 
    Response.Write "90"
    End If  
End If

End Function

Answer 1

To return the result of your Function you need to set the Functions return value:

Function GameTimer(FirstStarted, SecondStarted, GameType)
    ...
    GameTimer = 90
End Function

Your GameTimer Function should look something like this:

Function GameTimer(FirstStarted, SecondStarted, GameType)
    Dim result
    result = 90

    If GameType = "Soccer" Then
        DateFirstStarted = DateDiff("n", FirstStarted, FormatDateTime(Now(), 0))
        DateSecondStarted = DateDiff("n", SecondStarted, FormatDateTime(Now(), 0))

        If DateFirstStarted <= 45 Then
            result = DateFirstStarted
        End If

        If DateSecondStarted <= 45 Then
            result = DateSecondStarted + 45
        End If
    End If

    GameTimer = result
End Function

This would work, but it's still not clean code.

First, you should get rid of the GameType because what you actually want, is to determine the length of a period:

Function GameTimer(FirstStarted, SecondStarted, PeriodInMinutes)
    Dim result
    result = PeriodInMinutes * 2

    DateFirstStarted = DateDiff("n", FirstStarted, FormatDateTime(Now(), 0))
    DateSecondStarted = DateDiff("n", SecondStarted, FormatDateTime(Now(), 0))

    If DateFirstStarted <= PeriodInMinutes Then
        result = DateFirstStarted
    End If

    If DateSecondStarted <= PeriodInMinutes Then
        result = DateSecondStarted + PeriodInMinutes
    End If

    GameTimer = result
End Function

Usage

CurrentGameTime = GameTimer(FormatDateTime(objLiveCommentary("DateFirstStarted"), 0),
    FormatDateTime(objLiveCommentary("DateSecondStarted"), 0),
    45)

A next step would be to replace the parameters FirstStarted and SecondStarted by an Array to allow games with thirds and quarters.

---

Array of period start times

Function GameTimer(Periods, PeriodInMinutes)
    Dim result
    Dim currenttime
    Dim i

    result = 0 '-- preset to zero --'

    For i = 1 To (UBound(Periods))
        currenttime = DateDiff("n", Periods(i), FormatDateTime(Now(), 0))

        If currenttime > 0 Then
            If (currenttime <= PeriodInMinutes * i) Then
                result = currenttime + (PeriodInMinutes * (i - 1))
            Else
                result = PeriodInMinutes * i
            End If
        End If
    Next

    GameTimer = result
End Function

Usage

Dim CurrentGameTime
Dim IceHockeyPeriods(3)

IceHockeyPeriods(1) = "2010-04-15 19:30"
IceHockeyPeriods(2) = "2010-04-15 20:00"
IceHockeyPeriods(3) = "2010-04-15 20:30"

CurrentGameTime = GameTimer(IceHockeyPeriods, 20)

Edit

Refactored to correct the flaw that between periods the full time is returned.