The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

March 1996

FoxPro 2000 (Con’t from page 5)

Unrestricted Use:

cTODCChar’)

DAY({Date})

MONTH({Date})

YEAR({Date}) Always returns (CCYY] Format.

CDOW()

SYS(1), SYS(10) Julien Day. Accepts Date to 12/31/9999.

TIME()

PC Systems Time

DATE()

If "Year2000 .EXE" is used.

Restricted Use after 1999:

DATE()

If “Year2000.EXE” Is not used.

Set Century ON/OFF

DTOC()

Format determined by [Set Century].

? { } Format determined by (Set Century].

@ GET <Expr> PICT Picture Clause not respected by [Set

Century].

? cTOD(DTOC(Date0)) [VY] depends on [Set Century]

Examples:

command

Year

Note

? YEAR(CTOD(DTOC((01/01/ })))

1900

Should be Error

Set Cent Off

? YEAR(cTOD(DTOC({0l/01Ill01})))

1901

Assumes 20th Cent.

Set Cent On

? YEAR(CTOD(DTOC({0l/0lI1 101})))

1101

2.3 Date Entries:

Unless you stay with the 8 digit Date Format you end up

redesigning Forms.

CurrentTransaction Dates:

They are a bit tricky since the 8 digit [MM/DD/YY] Format uses

the FP Default Century.

Historical Dates : These would be outside the Default Century

Range and still must be entered in the 10 digit [MM/DD/CCYY]

Format to record properly, so that {01/01/1 045) records as the

year 1045.

2.4

Date Validation:

Needs to be expanded within the Function, as the results of

Date Entries can be all over the Centuries. For instance, FP

translates a blank [YY] to [00], thus this 4 digit Non-Date of {3/

1/) returns 03/01/1900, but shouldn’t this return an error? Not

acceptable!

2.5

Date Storage:

Dates are stored as a complete 10 digit Date with Century

Indicator, but are displayed in 8 or 10 digit Format, according to

Century OFF or ON. This is OK by me since I can get used to

interpreting {01/01/00}as 2000, as long as everything else works

OK.

2.6

Size of Date Fields:

In DBF’s, the standard Date Field Size of [0-8] does not change

with Set Century, but the actual Display follows the Set Century

Rule and becomes [0-10] with Set Cent ON.

3.0

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO APP’S?

At it’s simplest, one can use GOMONTH(+1200) to add 100

Years to a Date to jump into the 21st Century, but all other

quirks with the Date Functions remain invalidated.

My goal was to update my App’s with minimum effort, not

spend days or weeks fighting pixel congestion. With a few

exceptions, I want to stay with my existing 8 digit Data Entry

Format. This requires establishing my own Default Century

Indicator and bypassing Set Century ON/OFF as much as

possible and let the “unrestricted” Function to most of the work.

4.0 MCDATEO Features:

Syntax

: = MCDATE( Input, ‘dMemVar’)

Use

: Attach to ©Get Datebox with VALID

MCDATEO, or use in embedded code to

return [dMemVar]

DefaultCentury :1980 to 2079

Twin Inputs

: Type [CI as’ / / ‘or Type [DI as { / / }.

8-or 10-digit size

Twin Returns

:1. Return [.T.] or [0] for Datebox Validation

and

2.

Places the validated Date into

[dMemvar] as specified using the [MM/DO!

CCYY] Format.

The Good News:

I have done it, and am currently Beta Testing my new Function

in two APP’s. It took me longer to write this article than

adapting my APP’s and you can do it too. Contact Barry Lee for

free copies of YEAR2000.ZIP and MCDATE.PRG.

(Ed. Note: These programs are available by request to anyone

on the LA Fox-Cast. For anyone that isn’t on an online service,

please see me at the meetings to make arrangements.)

Out and About (Con’t from page 4)

dDay Fair We just recently learned that dDay Fair, spon-

sored by VWdBUG, will not be going on this year. But read on:

Board meeting notes LA Fox will start looking into “official”

non-profit status. We are also investigating co-sponsoring and

partnering a dDay-type Fair since the Valley Group seems to be

losing interest in carrying on this time-honored tradition. If it

happens, it’ll probably be in the September/October time frame

and moved further south. Let us know if you think this idea is

worthwhile. You’re not volunteering for anything <g>, you’re just

letting us know how you feel. We also have two new Board

members - George Porter and Michael Meer.

Memberships for those people whose dues expired in ‘95 are

due this month. Please look at your last newsletter label and if

the expiration date reads xx/xx/95, that means you. We’ve

been trimming back our mailing list each month, beginning last

January. There are currently about 30 members whose dues

expired in ‘95 and if they all paid, it would infuse our treasury

with about $1300. This amount roughly offsets the “running

(Con't, page 8)

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