Pivot Dates and 8.19

[pickerij@norbord.com]

I'm sure Bob will answer this too but here's my short response ...

The options "input century" clause is another fine example of the   
necessity to read a bit between the lines in Cognos documentation (it's   
better than the spiral bound days, but...). Notice that it is called the   
"INPUT century", repeat, INPUT -- it controls the application of a   
century window at the time of input of data into an 8 digit date item   
which does not include the century. This allows you to enter 981105 in   
you date fields instead of 19981105. Programmatically assigning a value   
to a date (as in your defines) does not constitute INPUT. So, the short   
of it is, the window applies to data entry in Quick, parm prompt   
responses in Qtp and Quiz and can be applied programmatically using the   
new century function within the addcentury function as in your defines   
for "force-50" and "force-75" below.

Hope this makes things clearer but I found that a quiet Saturday without   
users and phones helped greatly :-)

John Pickering
Toronto

 -----Original Message-----
From: tim.moe@Covance.Com
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 1998 12:57 PM
To: powerh-l@lists.swau.edu
Subject: Pivot Dates and 8.19

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------  
 --
I'm confused.


Pretty normal state of affairs, actually, but I was hoping someone
could shed some light on this.

We got 8.19 recently, and I set about playing with the pivot date
thingie in PDL.  It's not working the way I expect; to wit:

Q S H O W   (PowerHouse  8.19.C1)
Copyright 1998 COGNOS INCORPORATED

> show system
1998/10/28                    VXL Dictionary                      Page
   1
                         S Y S T E M   R E P O R T
                           For DICTIONARY:  phd


    Dictionary Name:    VXL Dictionary
    Dictionary Owner:   MGR.VXL
    Created:            On 1998/10/28       By PDL   8.19.C


    -- Date Options --
    Century Included?:  Yes                  Default Century:    19
    Date Picture:       YYYY/MM/DD           Input Century 19 From 70
    Nullseparator:  not specified            Allow Century:  not
specified


Note the pivot date; (Input Century from 70).


I get the following results from some tests:


Q U I Z   (PowerHouse  8.19.C1)
Copyright 1998 COGNOS INCORPORATED
> use testfile
> def date50 date century included =  500101
> def date75 date =  750101
> def systemdate date = sysdate
> define cent-50 int*4 = century(500101)
> define cent-75 int*4 = century(750101)
> def cdate50 date = addcentury(500101)
> def cdate75 date = addcentury(750101)
> define force-50 date = addcentury(date50,century(date50))
> define force-75 date = addcentury(date75,century(date75))
> define current-century int*4 = century(sysdate)
> define parm-date date century excluded = parm prompt "Testing ?"
> rep systemdate current-century skip &
>   parm-date skip &
>   date50 cent-50 cdate50 force-50 skip &
>   date75 cent-75 cdate75 force-75
> go


Testing ?650101




1998/10/28                       VXL Dictionary
PAGE   1


  SYSTEMDATE  CURRENT-CENTURY


   PARM-DATE


    DATE50    CENT-50    CDATE50    FORCE-50


    DATE75    CENT-75    CDATE75    FORCE-75


  1998/10/28          19
  1965/01/01
  1950/01/01      20   1950/01/01  2050/01/01
  1975/01/01      19   1975/01/01  1975/01/01


Records selected:  0
Lines printed:     9
Pages printed:     1


I would have expected DATE-50 and the PARM-DATE to be in the 21st
century, given the pivot date in the dictionary . . . but
nooooooooooo.


Does the pivot year really _only_ work with the CENTURY function, or
am I missing something?  The documentation isn't explicit but I have
the expectation that DATE-50 and PARM-DATE in the above example should
both be 21st century dates, not 20th century.  The fact the CENTURY
function works OK indicates the dictionary seems to have been compiled
in - any ideas?


Thanks,


Tim Moe
tim.moeÉcovance.com




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