Inconsistency in Date Formats Between @DATE and @MAKEDATE

[Jay Sage]

There is an inconsistency in the date format specifications between the
functions @DATE and @MAKEDATE. For @DATE, format 4 is defined as:

4 ISO (yyyy/mm/dd)


For @MAKEDATE it is:

4 ISO 8601 (yyyy-mm-dd)


In one case the separator is slashes; in the other it is hyphens. The
@MAKEDATE function does generate output with hyphens. The @DATE function
seems to accept either hyphens or slashes in the input.

If nothing else, the help files should be corrected.

-- Jay

 

[Steve Fabian]

Jay Sage wrote:
| There is an inconsistency in the date format specifications between
| the functions @DATE and @MAKEDATE. For @DATE, format 4 is defined as:
|
| 4 ISO (yyyy/mm/dd)
|
|
| For @MAKEDATE it is:
|
| 4 ISO 8601 (yyyy-mm-dd)
|
|
| In one case the separator is slashes; in the other it is hyphens. The
| @MAKEDATE function does generate output with hyphens. The @DATE
| function seems to accept either hyphens or slashes in the input.
|
| If nothing else, the help files should be corrected.

Look at topic "datefmt.htm" - it clearly explains that in date input almost
any nonnumeric character, including letters, is an acceptable separator. For
example, 2004m5.1 and 2004-05-01 are interpreted identically. Your concern
has been covered sinve the V6 issue of the help files.
--
Steve

 

[Jay Sage]

I still think that the help information should be consistent in the two
functions regarding what the ISO standard format #4 means. The fact that
input with other separators works does not change that. I'm not
complaining about the functions themselves, only about the help text.

-- Jay

 

[Charles Dye]

On a related note, I'd suggest doing a global search-and-replace for yyyy-www-d and replacing it with yyyy-Www-d (i.e. uppercase the first W to indicate that it is a literal letter W, not a placeholder for a digit.)