Mike,
This is probably simplistic but I define dates as date data types
because that's what they are. Similarly, I could store numeric values
in alpha fields but why when I can define them as numeric fields.
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 1:54 PM
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: To Date or Not to Date... that is the question
I go back and forth on this internally and decided to ask the experts.
Without starting another political battle (like that won't happen), when
defining a date field, is it better to define it as a date or as a
decimal 8?
What I see is:
Benefits to date:
* SQL selections on date are simple
* can easily use data BIFS
Benefits to decimal 8:
* Can have a "zero" date, a date typed field needs to be 0001-01-01
* date BIFS a bit harder to use (but not much)
What is your preference and why?
--
Mike Wills
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewills
Blog -
http://mikewills.name
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