Re: Date fields and moving from yyyymmdd to mmddyy

Gary, your point is well made and I abide by your explanation.  Thank you 
for your thorough commentary.  I am no longer irritated.
_______________________
Booth Martin
boothm@earth.goddard.edu
http://www.spy.net/~booth
_______________________




Gary Guthrie <GaryGuthrie@home.com>
Sent by: owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com
02/08/2000 11:40 AM
Please respond to RPG400-L

 
        To:     RPG400-L@midrange.com
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: Date fields and moving from yyyymmdd to mmddyy


Booth,

I know you're irritated, but step outside your irritation with me for a
moment.

Consider that not all applications are dealing with 2 centuries, 1900s
and 2000s. As an example, consider a museum that has objects that date
far back in the centuries.

Now, let's look at that in the context of your desires to work outside
the 40 - 39 window with 2 digit years. The system has to have a way to
determine what century you're referring to when you use 2 digit years,
otherwise there is no integrity. So, while YOUR users might know that if
the see a birth year expressed as 22 that it's 1922 and not 2022 because
2022 hasn't happened yet and you can't be born before your birth year
happened, that's not the only consideration. In the year 2023, a birth
year of 22 could mean either 2022 or 1922 because it's certainly
possible to be 101 years old (we should all be so lucky). The point is
that there are applications and circumstances that require removal of
ambiguity and the only way to do that with 2 digit years is to define a
100-year window that implicitly defines the century.


Gary Guthrie


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