Re: Year 2K - how to shake down your system

Scott,

In a message dated 97-08-14 18:05:46 EDT, you write:

> Ok, here's a good one for the list...most
>  of the Y2K tools I've seen any information
>  on do all kinds of cool things for IDing
>  programs needing changes, testing changes,
>  heck some even do the code changes for you.
>   But I have yet to see a tool that will
>  tell me "OK, here are the dates in your
>  system - DB, displays, reports, the works."
>   Most of 'em make you enter the date fields
>  manually, THEN they tell you the extent of
>  your problem.
>  
>  What I did for one of our smaller in house
>  apps was 
>  
>  - dumped out *ALL fields using DSPFFD
>  - killed the "obvious" non-dates (e.g. 7.5
>  numeric fields, 25A character fields, etc)
>  using SQL
>  - painstakingly reviewed the remaining
>  fields for dates (by field text and actual
>  contents in the DB)
>  
>  I'm not thrilled with this process, either
>  for it's accuracy nor the amount of effort
>  it requires.  Anybody out there got any
>  better ideas on how to perform this
>  critical 1st step for Y2K fixing?

Sounds like you've actually got a solid base, but you know the application.
 I'd say take any 6, (maybe 7) or 8 digit/character field and examine it's
manipulation.  You can narrow down your selection by eliminating any fields
that meet these criteria, but you KNOW aren't dates (eg., Shop Order Number,
Customer Order Number, Item Number, Customer Number, etc.).  If you know the
application, your Y2K efforts can be greatly reduced...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@AOL.COM

"As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists." -- Joan
Gussow
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