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What is the general approach taken to defining dates in files? Should they be held as numerics of appropriate length and then manipulated within the application, or, safe is the wrong word to use, but ok to define them as DATFMT within the physical file? We do have issues with legacy applications that make our decision more difficult, but were considering making the jump to date format fields in new projects. Is this common practise or not? Thanks
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Date definitions in files
After a year or so of making the same decision, we opt to make the fields for DATES & TIMES native datfmt/timfmt data types. A couple of reasons why: #1: sorting by date/time becomes automatically available rather than having to manipulate the date into a YMD format as the way the system stores dates irregardless of format. #2: invalid dates cannot be populated to the database -- the OS just won't let this happen - same as if using a input field as a DATE data type on a DSPF -- no editing needed, if invalid, the system catches the entry. We prefer to use *ISO, but any of the format(s) could be used -- and they ALL take the same amount of space irregardless of format. HTH - Lee.
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