Understanding Your Data Model › Using Fields › ISO Date › External Format

External Format

The external format for DTE 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 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 DTE 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.