FORMAT clause
The FORMAT clause specifies the general characteristics and editing requirements of an elementary date, time, or timestamp item.
The FORMAT clause must be specified for every elementary date, time, or timestamp item, except the subject of a RENAMES clause.
If the SIZE phrase is not specified for a timestamp item, the size defaults to 26. If it is specified, it must have a value of 19, or a value between 21 and 32.
literal-2 and the LOCALE
phrase cannot be specified for a timestamp item. A timestamp has a
fixed format, which is dependent on the size of the timestamp item.
- When the SIZE phrase is not specified, the format is equivalent to a literal-2 value of "@Y-%m-%d-%H.%M.%S.@Sm".
- When the SIZE phrase is specified with a value of 19, the format is equivalent to a literal-2 value of "@Y-%m-%d-%H.%M.%S".
- When the SIZE phrase is specified as a value between 21 and 32, the format is equivalent to a literal-2 value of "@Y-%m-%d-%H.%M.%S." followed by the fractional seconds in the timestamp. For example, a timestamp with size 25 could have the value "2014-01-23-01.02.03.12345".
If literal-2 or the LOCALE phrase is not specified for a date or time item, the format of the item is determined from the SPECIAL-NAMES FORMAT clause.
A data item of class date-time cannot be reference modified.
When
the FORMAT clause is specified, the following clauses cannot be specified:
- PICTURE clause.
- SIGN clause.
- BLANK WHEN ZERO clause.
- JUSTIFIED clause.
- LIKE clause. A LIKE clause can, however, be used to define the FORMAT of a data item. You cannot change the size of a date, time, or timestamp item with a LIKE clause. When a LIKE clause is referring to a date, time, or timestamp item, a comment is generated with the appropriate FORMAT clause information that is inherited
- TYPE clause.
The following general rules apply:
- A condition-name can be associated with a date-time item. The VALUE clause of the condition-name can be specified with a THRU phrase.
- A SYNCHRONIZED clause is treated as documentation.
- The OCCURS, REDEFINES, and RENAMES clauses can be associated with date, time, or timestamp items.
- If a LIKE clause is specified, a FORMAT clause cannot be specified.
- Any associated VALUE clause must specify a non-numeric literal. The literal is treated exactly as specified; no formatting is done.
- literal-2
- Specifies the format of a date or time item. literal-2 must be a non-numeric literal, at least 2 characters long. The contents of literal-2 is made up of separators and conversion specifiers. For a list of valid conversion specifiers, see the Conversion specifiers that can be used in literal-8 table. For further rules on the contents of literal-2, see the description of the FORMAT clause used in the SPECIAL-NAMES paragraph in FORMAT clause.