diff between *date and udate?

[sureshy31]

can someone pls tell what is the difference between *date and udate

[jmckay]

Re: diff between *date and udate?

UDATE returns a 6-digit date, with 2 digits for the year.

*DATE returns a 8-digit date, with 4 digits for the year.

[soup_dog]

Re: diff between *date and udate?

One starts with the letter 'U'... the other has an asterisk in front.

[Mercury]

Re: diff between *date and udate?

Additionally, from the ILE RPG Reference Manual, << the user date special words (UDATE, *DATE, UMONTH, *MONTH, UDAY, *DAY, UYEAR, *YEAR) allow the programmer to supply a date for the program at run time.>>

[B.Hauser]

Re: diff between *date and udate?

... but don't forget both (*DATE and UDATE as well as UDAY, *DAY, UMONTH, *MONTH, UYEAR and *YEAR) return the job date and not the current or system date. To retrieve the system date you either have to use the opcode TIME or the Built-in-Function %Date() without parameters.

The job date is the date when the job started, while the system date is the current date. For example, if some one starts a job on monday morning and does not signoff before friday, *DATE and UDATE return still the monday's date.

Birgitta

[Mercury]

Re: diff between *date and udate?

Birgitta,
Useful remarks to point out to the Forum Community as usual. Thanks.

[rechit]

Re: diff between *date and udate?

Great point Birgitta, that bit of information was more than useful.

Cheers,
Rechit

Life would have been great, if I had it's sourcecode.