RE: Date *HIVAL was Urgent!!! NULLS & ZEROS

Brad,

I have used date fields since they became available. At this point that 
covers 90%+ of our applications. I haven't noticed any performance 
problems. I also don't see why zero is any better than *loval. The best 
solution is null. In our case date fields and centralized date routines 
reduced Y2K related problems to near zero.

I would list SQL among the reasons to use Date fields, not that you couldn't 
cast your numeric as date using a few functions, but it is a lot harder than 
simply using a date field. The whole reason you would have to do this is 
because dates are not numeric values and don't follow the same rules as 
numeric value for example adding 1 to 19991231 results in 19991232, 
obviously this is not what you want.  

David Morris

>>> bvstone@taylorcorp.com 12/20/99 04:27PM >>>
A couple I can think of off the top of my head.

1. performace
2. no "zero-date" (*LOVAL doesn't count...)

There are more, but since I don't use them, I don't know them all.  I've
never heard more people have problems with something than the date data
type.  Well, maybe the SMTP server...  ;)

If you want to use em, fine.  I don't.  Nothing wrong with numeric dates.
Why create a new data type?  It doesn't make it any more Y2K compilant.  The
only GOOD thing i have found is you can move them right into a 10 character
text field and they will be displayed nicely.  But, with a move (two max) I
can do that with a numeric data type as well.  

Bradley V. Stone
BVS/Tools - www.bvstools.com 
Netshare400 - www.netshare400.com 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Langston [mailto:jlangston@conexfreight.com] 
> Sent: Monday, December 20, 1999 4:56 PM
> To: RPG400-L@midrange.com 
> Subject: Re: Date *HIVAL was Urgent!!! NULLS & ZEROS
> 
> 
> Curious, what problems?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jim Langston
> 
> "Stone, Brad V (TC)" wrote:
> 
> > I am thinking exactly the opposite.  Too many problems with 
> Date formats.  I
> > prefer numeric CCYYMMDD.  TEST(d) will do wonders in your 
> code for checking
> > for invalid dates.
> 
> <SNIP>

+---
| This is the RPG/400 Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to RPG400-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to RPG400-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to RPG400-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---