Date formats in the DATE operation
Date formats are combinations of date elements (Days, Months and Years),
represented by codes DD, MM, MMM, YY and YYYY, respectively.
The MMM code corresponds to the three-letter abbreviations of months, namely
Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr,May,Jun,Jul,Aug,Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec
The other codes correspond to the numeric representations of the elements.
The codes MM and MMM are alternatives, as well as YY and YYYY. The four-digit
representation of years should be preferred in most applications.
The formats for input and output are given by the specifications IDATE and
ODATE, respectively. The delimiters are given separately by the corresponding
specifications IDEL and ODEL (or IDEL1,IDEL2, ODEL1,ODEL2 for special needs).
The rules of input and output are described in the following table:
Input (IDATE, IDEL) Output (ODATE, ODEL)
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
- any combination of (DD,M*,Y*) - any subset of (DD,M*,Y*)
- leading zeros required if no - leading zeros preserved in
delimiters used string variables
- month names case-insensitive - month names given like Jan or Feb
(when using MMM) (JAN=Jan) (when using MMM)
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
In all cases, MM and MMM are alternatives, as well as YY and YYYY.
For example,
IDATE=DDMMMYYYY with IDEL=/ corresponds to dates like 15/Nov/1999
ODATE=YYYYMM with ODEL=+ gives dates like 1999+11
The following special cases are available as shortcuts:
DD.MM.YY DD.MM.YYYY DD/MM/YY DD/MM/YYYY MM/DD/YY MM/DD/YYYY DD-MMM-YYYY
D = More information on DATE operation
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