Understanding Your Data Model › Using Fields › Description and Usage of Field Types › External Format

External Format

The external format for D8# fields and the valid range for entering dates depends on the input edit code you select for the field.

• If the edit code has a 4-digit-year format (YYYY), the range of dates you can enter is the same as the internal format range, namely, January 1, 1801 to December 31, 2199.
• If the edit code has a 2-digit year format (YY), the range of dates you can enter is restricted to a ‘floating’ hundred years (00-99) starting from the year CA 2E specified by the YCUTOFF model value. The cut-off year can be any year from within the range of 1900-1999 and its current value is retrieved at run time. The shipped default is 1940. In this case a year greater than or equal to 40 is assumed to be in the 20th century; a year less than 40 is assumed to be in the 21st century.

The external format for D8# fields for both input and output also depends on the setting of the Date Generation Validation (YDATGEN) and Date Format (YDATFMT) model values. It can be *MDY, *DMY, or *YMD. Note that to enter, display, or print date fields with a four-digit-year external format such as, MM/DD/YYYY, you need to change the appropriate edit code to either / or –.

For more information on four-digit years and edit codes, refer to the table in the description of the DT# field type in this chapter.

See the chapter "Modifying Action Diagrams" in Building Applications for more information on *MOVE and the date built-in functions.