Re: REXX and dates from commands -- MIDRANGE-L


On 04/10/2005, at 7:16 AM, Goodbar, Loyd (ETS - Water Valley) wrote:

The issue I have is that in command/program CPP environments (CLP, RPG,
etc.), I am assured the command processor presents the date to the CPPin a
consistent, known, format.
The CL command CVTDAT depends on you knowing the date format going in.I'm
not guaranteed that.

As REXX receives the command line parameters "as typed", no date
presentation conversion has taken place. I don't know, for example, if
'100305' meant 3 October 2005 (mdy), 10 March 2005 (dmy), or 5 March2010(ymd). I can use the date format from the job or system settings andmakesome assumptions. It's really nice that OS/400 performs the work forme and
presents the date in a known manner - '1051003', 3 October 2005.

I think for now I will wrap the REXX procedure in a CL.


Stop making this so hard for yourself. You know a number of things:

1) The Command Analyzer requires DATE values to be entered in theformat of the job

        2) The Command Analyzer passes the date to Rexx as typed by the user
        3) Rexx can invoke CL commands
        4) The CL command CVTDAT can convert from one date format to another.
        5) The CVTDAT command defaults to FROMFMT(*JOB) which matches item 1

6) The CVTDAT command help says it ignores input separator characterswhich solves item 2

So very simple Rexx code can be used to handle the date regardless ofinput format. For example:


The command definition:
REXXDATE:   CMD        PROMPT('Pass A Date To Rexx')

            PARM       KWD(DATE) TYPE(*DATE) MIN(1) PROMPT('A date +
                         ib job date format')                         

The Rexx processing program:
/* Rexx the Wonder Dog */
arg 'DATE('inDate')' .
toDate = '        '; /* Ensure enough room for output date */
say inDate;

'CVTDAT DATE('inDate') TOVAR(&toDate) FROMFMT(*JOB) TOFMT(*YYMD)TOSEP(*NONE)';

say toDate;
exit(0);

Running this via:
        REXXDATE DATE('31/12/99') 
or
        REXXDATE DATE(311299) 

results in:
        '31/12/99'
        19991231
        Press ENTER to end terminal session.

This will work regardless of the job date format.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.
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