Re: MIDRANGE-L Digest V4 #635

From my understanding, dates are stored in some unique binary state
that we never see.  And you are correct, the *MDY, *ISO, *USA just
formats this date value so that we can see it.

The window limit is not on the value that is stored, however.  No
matter what format I enter a date of 06/19/01 it is going to get
stored in IBMs version of the date for June 19th, 2001.

The problem comes in if I had a date stored as June 19th, 1901.
The system can not show this in *MDY format.  I believe you'll
get a date error if you try.  Which, in this particular case,
would be a good thing, since I would rather give a user no information
than wrong information.

But, as you state, that same date of June 19th, 1901 will display
nicely in *ISO format as 1901-06-19.

If the window is slid, it would not change the way the values are
stored.  It would just change the valid date ranges that *MDY will
display.

I think we're agreeing with each other?

Regards,

Jim Langston

Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 16:43:06 -0400
From: "Joe Giusto II \(E-mail\)" <juicenetdps@crosswinds.net>
Subject: RE: Two digit date window

I was under the impression that the *MDY, *ISO, *USA, ect. Was just for
external representation (display) of the internally stored date.  If the
"window" for converting 6 digit dates into the date format is changed, how
will that effect the internally stored date values that have already been
written to the database?  If you retrieve them and move into 6 digit date
fields for display purposes, who would see the difference between 1901 and
2001 anyway?  In my opinion, it would be interpreted by the user based on
the context in which it was presented.  If it can not be derived at from the
context, then it should be displayed in 8 digit format.

Please feel free to correct any of my misconceptions.

Joe Giusto II
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