RE: Date question

<snip>
I think the notion was to follow the behavior of numerics (i.e. all
database numeric field types end up as packed unless you explicitly
control them) - the problem is that most RPGers don't understand the
rules for numerics (as is often made obvious during discussions here
regarding prototyped numeric
fields) so making dates follow similar rules turns out to be not such a
good idea!
</snip>

I agree... 


Thanks,
Tommy Holden


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jon Paris
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 3:00 PM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Date question

 >> I believe IIRC the date is actually stored as 4 byte binary...

On the DASD - Yes.

Other than in a dump of the DASD you will never see it in this format
however.  As the record is read by the OS the value is converted to the
appropriate character string as specified on the type L field in the
file
(*ISO) if nothing specified.  So as far as your program is concerned it
is always a character string complete with separators.

DatFmt controls how it normally comes into the RPG program.  If no
H-spec entry (and the field is not otherwise declared in a DS or
whatever) then it will come in as *ISO.  Note that that may mean double
conversion in cases where a format other than *ISO was specified for the
L-type field.

I think the notion was to follow the behavior of numerics (i.e. all
database numeric field types end up as packed unless you explicitly
control them) - the problem is that most RPGers don't understand the
rules for numerics (as is often made obvious during discussions here
regarding prototyped numeric
fields) so making dates follow similar rules turns out to be not such a
good idea!


Jon Paris
Partner400

www.Partner400.com
www.RPGWorld.com


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