How to get current date and time in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format ?

I would like to avoid string manipulation

Delimiters in the format are required, so you will have to manipulate the strings anyway.

$tr($system.SQL.TOCHAR($h,"YYYYMMDD HH24 MI SS")," ","")
or
$tr($system.SQL.TOCHAR($h,"YYYY^MM^DD^HH24^MI^SS"),"^","")

Your solution is just perfect. And fast.

But yes, you can avoid string manipulations... This one, for example, uses math only, merely it's neither short nor looks elegant:

 set dt=$h write $zd(dt,8)*100+($p(dt,",",2)\3600)*100+($p(dt,",",2)#3600\60)*100+($p(dt,",",2)#60)

but gives the same result as your short and nice solution...

 set dt=$h write $zd(dt,8)*100+($p(dt,",",2)\3600)*100+($p(dt,",",2)#3600\60)*100+($p(dt,",",2)#60),!,$tr($zdt(dt,8)," :")

On the other hand, you can install new brakes on your car, as suggested by others... ;-))

Just compare those codes with yours:

set h=$h, t=$zh for i=1:1:1E6 { set x=$tr($system.SQL.TOCHAR($h,"YYYY^MM^DD^HH24^MI^SS"),"^") } write $zh-t,!

set h=$h, t=$zh for i=1:1:1E6 { set x=$tr($zdt(h,8)," :") } write $zh-t,!

The choice is yours...