Talk:Date Data Type

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Posted by Grant Foraker on September 14, 2009 at 14:43:13:

Adding a Date data type to Comet has been discussed at several past Dealer/Developer meetings. So, as a baby step, can we add a "D" field type to #CFILES.

Right now the majority of dates in my files are either "YYYYMMDD" or "MM/DD/YYYY". The "YYYYMMDD" ones for date sorting (in keys mostly) and the "MM/DD/YYYY" ones for display. The Date Serial Number is another possible option.

So, in the Reporter

SELECTING IF TRANS.DATE EQ "%FromDate%"

would prompt a Date Picker because TRANS.DATE was a "D" instead of a "S" field.

Posted by Jon Sacks on September 15, 2009 at 06:28:44:

In Reply to: Date data type posted by Grant Foraker on September 14, 2009 at 14:43:13:

All dates should be stored in the system as serial date/time and the mask applied indicates the way it should be displayed.

Posted by Steve Auerbach on September 15, 2009 at 07:41:34:

 In Reply to: Re: Date data type posted by Jon Sacks on September 15, 2009 at 06:28:44:

Jon, of course, is right. Dates should be stored as serial date/time. Sadly the Q machine did not know about such sophistication. 
#CFILES has this legacy thing to deal with.
And, of course, I agree with Grant BUT we need more than a D type. We need type codes like those so mnemonically defined for DATE2NUM.
Easy to remember; flows trippingly from the tongue. Sadly we need more than one date code.