Re: To Date or Not to Date... that is the question

Hi,

I create a default date field (0001-01-01) that I use for comparisons to

see if a date has been set.
You do not need an extra field. Just compare with *LoVal.

A date is a 4 Byte binary value representing the number of days since x
(scaliger number).
A packed numeric date needs 5 Byte.

Date calculation is much more easier with date fields.
RPG and SQL provide a bunch of built-in- or scalar functions for date
caluclation.
But dates as data type is needed.

Even if you handle with old RPGIII or Cobol Programs, that does not
support
real date types, you can work with embedded SQL to use date fields or to
use
the SQL scalar function to calculate.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Birgitta Hauser

"Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." (Les
Brown)
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." (Derek Bok)
"What is worse than training your staff and losing them? Not training
them
and keeping them!"

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: rpg400-l-bounces+hauser=sss-software.de@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces+hauser=sss-software.de@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Im Auftrag
von
Gene Burns
Gesendet: Thursday, December 13, 2007 21:02
An: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Betreff: Re: To Date or Not to Date... that is the question


I prefer date fields.

Comparisons between two dates is much easier using date fields. This is
equivalent to the decimal "date" field being set to *zero.

Gene


On Dec 13, 2007 1:54 PM, Mike <koldark@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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
Podcasts - http://podcastmike.com
--
This is the RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries (RPG400-L) mailing
list To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe,
unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at
http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.

--
This is the RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries (RPG400-L) mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe,
or
change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.





--
This is the RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries (RPG400-L) mailing list
To post a message email: RPG400-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/rpg400-l
or email: RPG400-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/rpg400-l.