Re: Year 2000

RE:     Re: Year 2000

>>
>><SNIP>
>>
>>>Doing a Y2K conversion AND converting to ILE is a bit ambitious, don't you
>>>think?  It was my understanding that there were some performance problems
>>>with the date data types at one point, is this still the case?
>>>Regards!
>>>  Dean Asmussen
>>
>>To heck with the performance issue.  I bet the files you have to day, You
>>(and more importantly) and your users will be using well beyond the year
>>2000.  They will be using(or wishing they could) Date type functions 
>>(durations, etc) even MUCH more 2-3 years from now than they do today.  
>  John Carr

>The problem with date data types is more than performance.  Zero dates are
>special values are not supported.  Also invalid dates blow up.  How clean
>is your data?  Do you have a field in your A/R system for 'date paid'? Do
>you have a field in your payroll system for 'date of termination'?
>It's not that straight forward.
>  Al Barsa, Jr. - Account for Midrange-L

Your absolutly right Al its not that straight forward.  When we talk about
legacy code we complain that the "Company's Business Logic Rules" are 
imbedded in the application code.   What does a zero date mean now?
Right,  It depends on the "Application/File/Program" set period.  Did the 
user forget to fill it in?   Is it a N/A condition?  What is the user 
who is using that new whiz bang query tool supposed to think it means? 

What does a 99/99/99 date (I'm sure we'd find that one in alot of files
in most shops) mean?  Does it mean infinity?  Or would we have to have
a "Talk with the programmer" who designed the file/application to find
out what the 500 or so programs do when they hit that one?

What I'm saying is that what we have now doesn't work.  It only seems to
work because our code steps around the holes.  When one of them steps in
one of those holes is when the beeper goes off at an odd hour and we have
to rush in at 2am to fix something.  

How many times have you and I been at a conference and walk by the phones
on our breaks and hear  "Did Monthend run alright?  Did anything blow up
yesterday?"

Date & Time data types have problems (Nulls, N/A, zero's, infinity, etc)
but we've been around long enough, and have to admit that what we have
today have the same kind of problems, just different.

(BTW I think its good that invalid dates blow up, GIGO)

<End of Soap>

John Carr CDP
EdgeTech


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