RE: Specifying Dates in DDS

You forgot the biggest disadantage.  A date type cannot have zeros in
it, so checking say for a ship date you have to compare it to whatever
you are using for a null value (ie 01-01-0001) or *LOVAL.

Bradley V. Stone        
bvstone@taylorcorp.com
http://prairie.lakes.com/~bvstone/
"Seinfeld's van!  SEINFELD'S VAN!"

        ----Original Message-----
        From:   Simon Coulter [SMTP:fbns@flybynight.com.au]
        Sent:   Wednesday, March 11, 1998 6:52 PM
        To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        Subject:        Re: Specifying Dates in DDS

        Hello Neil,

        I would use the date data type.  The advantages are:
                system supported date functions (durations, extractions,
comparisons,
        leap-year, etc)
                direct query support (Query/400, OPNQRYF, SQL, ODBC, and
most third party
        tools)
                less space used in the database
                
        The disadvantages are:
                not easy to process from RPG/400
                no PRTF or DSPF date fields (no big deal anyway, just
move)
                slightly slower performance using date fields
(converting to/from internal
        DB format)

        Regards,
        Simon Coulter.

        //----------------------------------------------------------
        // FlyByNight Software         AS/400 Technical Specialists
        // Phone: +61 3 9419 0175      Mobile: +61 3 0411 091 400
        // Fax:   +61 3 9419 0175      E-mail: shc@flybynight.com.au
        // 
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        //--- forwarded letter
-------------------------------------------------------
        > X-Mailer: TFS Gateway
/222000000/223021754/223005105/223110748/
        > Date: Tue, 10 Mar 98 12:23:56 +0000
        > From: neil.williams@pocruises.com
        > To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        > Reply-To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
        > Subject: Specifying Dates in DDS

        > 
        >     
        >      I have always believed that the best and most efficient
way (from a 
        >      retrieval and manipulation point of view) to store dates
in a physical 
        >      file is in the format 
        >      
        >      A          CC    2S 0
        >      A          YY    2S 0
        >      A          MM    2S 0
        >      A          DD    2S 0
        >      
        >      I've been asked to consider using;
        >      
        >      A          DAT   8D 
        >      
        >      Now I'm an old stick in the mud with tunnel vision, so
can anyone tell 
        >      me the pros and cons of both methods so that I can make
an informed 
        >      decision on this ?
        >      
        >      Neil Holley-Williams
        >      Southampton, UK
        >       


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