Modifying Action Diagrams › Understanding Built-In Functions › Selection Parameters for Date Built-In Functions

Selection Parameters for Date Built-In Functions

This topic gives details about the selection parameters for the *DATE DETAILS, *DATE INCREMENT, and *DURATION built-in functions. It also discusses the related *Date list autoload parameter. The selection parameters are

• *Excluded days of week
• *Date List name
• *Select days/dates

Note: For the *DATE INCREMENT and *DURATION built-in functions, you can specify a value other than *NO or NONE for the selection parameters only if the *Duration type parameter is *DAYS.

*Excluded Days Of Week

This parameter is a condition field or derived field of type STS. Use this parameter to specify days that are normally to be excluded from an operation; for example, weekends or days not worked by part-time employees.

Each value you specify for this parameter consists of seven digits. Each digit can be 1 or 0 and corresponds to a day of the week beginning with Monday. A 1 indicates that the day is to be included in the operation; a 0 indicates that the day is to be excluded.

The possible values are shown in the following table.

You can modify the selection rule set by this parameter using the other two selection parameters.

• Use *Date List name to exclude or include particular dates.
• Specify *EXCLUDE for *Select days/dates to reverse the effect of the selection; in other words, to select excluded days.
• *Date List Name

This parameter specifies the name of an existing date list.

Date lists let you override the selection rules set by the *Excluded days of week parameter for particular dates; for example, holidays. A date list consists of a unique name, a list of dates, and a 1 or 0 for each date to indicate whether to include or exclude the date. To use a date list, specify its name on the *Date List name parameter.

Note: You can specify dates for different years on the same date list.

The default for *Date List name is NONE; in other words, no date list is specified. This value is required in the following cases.

• The *Duration type parameter is other than *DAYS on the *DATE INCREMENT and *DURATION built-in functions.
• The *Date detail type parameter is *ABSOLUTE DAY, *MONTH, *YEAR, or *LEAP YEAR on the *DATE DETAILS built-in function.

When a date built-in function uses a date list executes, it expects to find the specified *Date List name in the *Date Lists array. This array and the function needed to create it are shipped with CA 2E. Each element of the array is comprised of the following fields:

For more information on arrays, see Building Access Paths, in the chapter "Defining Arrays."

To load a date list into the *Date Lists array you can do one of the following:

• Write instructions in the action diagram to load the information into the array before executing the built-in function.
• Specify *YES for the *Date list autoload parameter. The *Date list autoload parameter determines whether the function is to automatically load the specified date list into the *Date Lists array, if it does not find the name in the array. The possible values are
  • *YES: The specified *Date List name is automatically loaded from the *Date List Detail file into the *Date Lists array when the built-in function executes. You can specify *YES only when *Date List name is other than NONE.
  • *NO: You need to provide instructions in the action diagram to load the date list into the *Date Lists array before executing the built-in function.

To create date lists for use with the *Date list autoload capability, you can use the Work with Date List function that is shipped with CA 2E in the *Date List Header file. The information you enter is stored in the *Date List Header and *Date List Detail files.

The *Date List Header and *Date List Detail physical and logical files are supplied in the generation library in addition to being defined in the model. If you want to maintain these files, you need to regenerate and compile them.

Notes:

• You need to generate and compile the Work with Date List function into your generation library. You invoke it using its implementation name.
• Before you can compile functions with *Date list autoload set to *YES, you need to generate and compile the PHY, RTV, and UPD access paths for the *Date List Detail file.

Suppose Company ABC is closed for business on certain holidays. The following example shows a date list, created using the Work with Date List function that excludes those holidays.

You can create a similar date list to include days that are not considered normal business days. For example, suppose the employees of Company ABC are required to work on a Saturday for the company inventory. The date list would contain an entry like the following.

70994 1     Company Inventory Day

You can reverse the effect of the selection rule set by a date list by specifying *EXCLUDE for the *Select days/dates parameter; in other words, you can select excluded days instead of included days.

*Select Days/Dates

This parameter lets you reverse the selection set by the *Excluded days of week and *Date List name parameters. Normally, only included days are selected and considered by a date built-in function. This parameter lets you select excluded days instead.

The possible values for this parameter are shown in the following table.