Date Data Type

Date fields have a predetermined size and format. They can be defined on the definition specification. Leading and trailing zeros are required for all date data.

Date constants or variables used in comparisons or assignments do not have to be in the same format or use the same separators. Also, dates used for I/O operations such as input fields, output fields or key fields are also converted (if required) to the necessary format for the operation.

Start of change The default internal format for date variables is *ISO. This default internal format can be overridden globally by the control specification keyword DATFMT, temporarily changed by /SET and /RESTORE directives, and individually set by the definition specification keyword DATE or DATFMT. End of change

The hierarchy used when determining the internal date format and separator for a date field is

From the DATE or DATFMT keyword specified on the definition specification
From the most recent /SET directive containing a DATFMT keyword that has not been restored by a /RESTORE directive.
From the DATFMT keyword specified on the control specification
*ISO

There are three kinds of date data formats, depending on the range of years that can be represented. This leads to the possibility of a date overflow or underflow condition occurring when the result of an operation is a date outside the valid range for the target field. The formats and ranges are as follows:

Number of Digits in Year	Range of Years
2 (YMD, DMY, MDY, JUL)	1940 to 2039
3 (CYMD, CDMY, *CMDY)	1900 to 2899
4 (ISO, USA, EUR, JIS, *LONGJUL)	0001 to 9999

Table 1 lists the RPG-defined formats for date data and their separators.

Note: The separator '&' indicates that a blank is used as the separator. For example, a date field defined with DATE(*YMD&) will have blanks as the separators.

For examples on how to code date fields, see the examples in:

Table 1. RPG-defined date formats and separators for Date data type
Format Name	Description	Format (Default Separator)	Valid Separators	Length	Example
2-Digit Year Formats
*MDY	Month/Day/Year	mm/dd/yy	/ - . , &	8	01/15/96
*DMY	Day/Month/Year	dd/mm/yy	/ - . , &	8	15/01/96
*YMD	Year/Month/Day	yy/mm/dd	/ - . , &	8	96/01/15
*JUL	Julian	yy/ddd	/ - . , &	6	96/015
4-Digit Year Formats
*ISO	International Standards Organization	yyyy-mm-dd	-	10	1996-01-15
*USA	IBM® USA Standard	mm/dd/yyyy	/	10	01/15/1996
*EUR	IBM European Standard	dd.mm.yyyy	.	10	15.01.1996
*JIS	Japanese Industrial Standard Christian Era	yyyy-mm-dd	-	10	1996-01-15

Table 2 lists the *LOVAL, *HIVAL, and default values for all the RPG-defined date formats.

Table 2. Date Values
Format name	Description	*LOVAL	*HIVAL	Default Value
2-Digit Year Formats
*MDY	Month/Day/Year	01/01/40	12/31/39	01/01/40
*DMY	Day/Month/Year	01/01/40	31/12/39	01/01/40
*YMD	Year/Month/Day	40/01/01	39/12/31	40/01/01
*JUL	Julian	40/001	39/365	40/001
4-Digit Year Formats
*ISO	International Standards Organization	0001-01-01	9999-12-31	0001-01-01
*USA	IBM USA Standard	01/01/0001	12/31/9999	01/01/0001
*EUR	IBM European Standard	01.01.0001	31.12.9999	01.01.0001
*JIS	Japanese Industrial Standard Christian Era	0001-01-01	9999-12-31	0001-01-01

Several formats are also supported for fields used by the MOVE, MOVEL, and TEST operations only. This support is provided for compatibility with externally defined values that are already in a 3-digit year format and the 4-digit year *LONGJUL format. It also applies to the 2-digit year formats when *JOBRUN is specified.

*JOBRUN should be used when the field which it is describing is known to have the attributes from the job. For instance, a 12-digit numeric result of a TIME operation will be in the job date format.

Table 3 lists the valid externally defined date formats that can be used in Factor 1 of a MOVE, MOVEL, and TEST operation.

Table 3. Externally defined date formats and separators
Format Name	Description	Format (Default Separator)	Valid Separators	Length	Example
2-Digit Year Formats
*JOBRUN¹	Determined at runtime from the DATFMT, or DATSEP job values.
3-Digit Year Formats²
*CYMD	Century Year/Month/Day	cyy/mm/dd	/ - . , &	9	101/04/25
*CMDY	Century Month/Day/Year	cmm/dd/yy	/ - . , &	9	104/25/01
*CDMY	Century Day/Month/Year	cdd/mm/yy	/ - . , &	9	125/04/01
4-Digit Year Formats
*LONGJUL	Long Julian	yyyy/ddd	/ - . , &	8	2001/115
Note: JOBRUN is valid only for character or numeric dates with a 2-digit year since the run-time job attribute for DATFMT can only be MDY, YMD, DMY or *JUL. Valid values for the century character 'c' are: `'c' Years ----------------------- 0 1900-1999 1 2000-2099 . . . . . . 9 2800-2899`