Consultor Eletrônico

Start up option -d affects date ORDER not FORMAT ( ymd )

Start up parameter -d affects only the ORDER not the FORMAT
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The -d start up parameter determines the ORDER of a date
field; for instance, you can use the -d to specify the order
as YEAR MONTH DAY (-d ymd) which is different from the default of
MONTH DAY YEAR. A date that would be displayed as 12/25/97 by default
would be displayed as follows with the -d ymd start up option:

97/12/25

It is important to note that the -d option only affects
the ORDER and not the FORMAT of the date. This means that
dates of a certain format will not display as you may expect them to.

For instance, a date with format 99/99/9999 will display by default
as 12/25/1997. If you start Progress with -d ymd the same date will
display as follows:

97/12/0025

As you can see by the example above, the order of the month,day,year
are as specified by the -d, BUT the format is still 99/99/9999.


How to work around this?
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Currently, the only workaround that exists for this problem is not
very portable. It requires you to change the format at runtime using
the FORMAT attribute or by putting a FORMAT phrase on each display
command.

For instance, the following code, run with -d ymd will display the
date as 1997/12/25:

def var idate as DATE format "99/99/9999" init "12/25/1997".
define frame x idate.
idate:format = "9999/99/99". /* add this to change format */
display idate with frame x.


OR

def var idate as DATE init "12/25/1997".
display idate format "9999/99/99". /* add this to change format */


Progress Software Technical Support Note # 16712