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

That is a good, and yes very academical, question. And I'd like to
extend the question for the different date representations (muslim,
japanese, chinese, mayan, etc.).

My guess: the dates as used on I series systems these days cannot
accomodate these because there is a lack of at least 2 qualifiers:

- Date system (gregorian, julian, muslim, japanese, mayan, etc)
- Before or after conception of the date system

Java has made a serious attempt to handle this side of the equation but
at a price: a whole lot of API's and manipulation methods which don't
make it much easier to do date calculations.

Cor

-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Peter.Colpaert@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: vrijdag 14 december 2007 8:18
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: RE: To Date or Not to Date... that is the question

Just a thought: could date fields be used for dates before Christ
(theoretically speaking of course, I'm fully aware that calendars have
changed many times in the past)

Peter Colpaert
Application Developer
PLI - IT - Kontich, Belgium
-----
Yoda of Borg are we. Futile is resistance, assimilated will you be.
-----



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






<snip>

A date field is a date field containing (surprise, surprise) dates, at
least at the using end of the equation it is a very real date with days,
months and year values which are guaranteed valid (or either one of the
constants *LOVAL or *HIVAL). Values will never be less than zero (due to
the fact that day or month -1 don't exist)

</snip>