Re: Y3K or not to Y3K

I can offer a couple possible reasons why an 8 digit date might be a good
idea. None, some or all might apply to your situation.  And you might not
agree with them  :)

*disclaimer - After I re-read my message, I realized that I mixed in some
arguments about why you should use L-date fields along with the arguments
for 8 digit dates.  I made an assumption in doing that which may not be
true - what do you mean by *M36?  The RPG36 on an AS400 can use a dds
defined L-date field without any problems.  I don't know if *M36 can or not.
That leads to the issue of whether or not to define your files, I suppose.
Another day for that one.

Consistency - while some fields might not ever contain 19xx dates, might
some others?  It would be a good thing to be able to say date fields are
always in X format instead of some in 6 some in 8.

Conversion/Acquisition/Consolidation - If you buy another company (or
another company buys you) you might have to import data into your new system
that you thought would never have 19xx data. That scenario may be a stretch
but there are lots of reasons that old data gets imported into new systems.

Code lifetime - you say that it is a *M36 installation and likely to remain
so.  Obviously, I can't debate your situation, but I bet there are a lot of
shops like ours where parts of the database are older than some of our
programmers.  If that code lasts 20 years, will it still be a *M36
installation?  Maybe, but then again, maybe not.  The programmers who follow
you will be happier if you set the database up to use L-date fields right
from the beginning.

Query & SQL - Both of these tools can manipulate L-date fields in ways that
are impossible (or very difficult) with dates in numeric or character
format.

Tools - If you use a data analysis tool on your data (or if you export or
download data to one) it might be easier if it has a 4 digit year or is a
L-field.

Larry Paque
larry@paque.net


----- Original Message -----
From: <boothm@earth.Goddard.edu>
To: <rpg400-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2000 9:53 AM
Subject: Y3K or not to Y3K


> An interesting question was just asked here.  Why, on a brand new
> application with no dates prior to Jan. 1, 2000 are we using an 8-digit
> date?  L-Date fields are not relevant  -  this is an *M36 installation and
> likely to remain so.
> _______________________
> Booth Martin
> boothm@earth.goddard.edu
> http://www.spy.net/~booth
> _______________________
>
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