Question

AS/400 format DATE field

Asked by: KALULAX

I am in need of a a query deifnition in the AS/400 Define Results Fields that will format an existing field to a date format. The existing field has data representing an activity date and appears as 20,090,417 which I would like to convert in the report output as 04/17/2009.

The expression I used yeilds nothing but + signs in the ouput.

Last Used Date    LAST ACT
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
   ++++++++     20,090,417
 
 Field       Expression                         Column Heading        Len   Dec
 DATE        DATE(MMDTAC)                       Last Used Date

                                  
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Asked On
2009-04-17 at 11:40:03ID24332740
Topic

Programming for iSeries / AS400

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
15

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Answers

 

by: daveslashPosted on 2009-04-17 at 12:59:01ID: 24171525


It's been several years since I last used WrkQry, but this would be SIGNIFICANTLY easier using SQL.

e.g.

For YYYY-MM-DD:
 
select left(char(intDate),4) ||
        '-' ||
       substr(intDate,3,2) ||
       '-' ||
       substr(intDate,5,2)
from   deleteme2
 
For MM/DD/YYYY
 
select substr(intDate,3,2) ||
       '-' ||
       substr(intDate,5,2) ||
       '-' ||
       left(char(intDate),4)
from   deleteme2
 
HTH,
DaveSlash
                                              
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by: daveslashPosted on 2009-04-17 at 13:00:02ID: 24171534

Oops, for the second example, I meant this:

select substr(intDate,3,2) ||
       '/' ||
       substr(intDate,5,2) ||
       '/' ||
       left(char(intDate),4)
from   deleteme2
                                              
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by: KALULAXPosted on 2009-04-17 at 13:06:03ID: 24171576

I have used the following and it works great on the AS/400, but when I dump the data to Excel, the date is hexidecimal.

Field       Expression                      
DATE1       DIGITS(MMDTAC)                  
                                             
                                             
                                             
DATE        SUBSTR(DATE1,5,2) || '/' ||      
            SUBSTR(DATE1,7,2) || '/' ||      
            SUBSTR(DATE1,1,4)                

 

by: Gary_The_IT_ProPosted on 2009-04-17 at 13:06:57ID: 24171582

First you have to use DIGITS to convert the numeric to character, then you can use substring to parse out the date components, and finally use the concatenation operator to stick it all back together with slashes inthe right places.

substring(digits(mmdtac),5,2) || '/' || substring(digits(mmdtac,7,2) || '/' || substring(digits(mmdtac),1,4)

If you can live with yyyy/mm/dd format,. just use an edit word in the report column formatting ('bbbb/bb/bb') (b=blank) instead of all of this.

- Gary Patterson


 

by: Gary_The_IT_ProPosted on 2009-04-17 at 13:11:21ID: 24171625

daveslash,

Shouldn't your 3,2 be 5,2 and your 5,2 be 7,2 in the examples above?

yyyy = positions1-4
mm = pos 5-6
dd = pos 7-8

- Gary Patterson

 

by: Gary_The_IT_ProPosted on 2009-04-17 at 13:15:49ID: 24171677

If you are dumping to an output file, the best way to make sure dates convert properly isto conver to DATE data type.  In query/400 this means that you have to take you numeric date, convert it into job date format (DSPJOB to see your job date format), then wrap that converted character date in the DATE function:

Assuming *MDY job date format with a job date separator of "/":

date(substring(digits(mmdtac),5,2) || '/' || substring(digits(mmdtac,7,2) || '/' || substring(digits(mmdtac),1,4))

- Gary Patterson

 

by: daveslashPosted on 2009-04-17 at 13:16:50ID: 24171692


> daveslash,
> Shouldn't your 3,2 be 5,2 and your 5,2 be 7,2 in the examples above?

Yes, Gary, you're absolutely right!

Too much lunch ... not enough coffee ...  :-)

-- DaveSlash

 

by: Gary_The_IT_ProPosted on 2009-04-17 at 13:49:46ID: 24171936

Now I want coffee.

 

by: KALULAXPosted on 2009-04-17 at 15:23:06ID: 24172423

Gary...The,

There does not appear to be enough room in the query input field to place...date(substring(digits(mmdtac),5,2) || '/' ||... all on one line

 

by: _b_hPosted on 2009-04-17 at 16:51:58ID: 24172785

If the expression does not fit in the three lines available, create several result fields and put them together:
MM            substring(digits(mmdtac),5,2)
DD            substring(digits(mmdtac),7,2)
YY             substring(digits(mmdtac),1,4)
MYDATE    date(MM || '/' || DD || '/' || YY)

 

by: KALULAXPosted on 2009-04-17 at 17:05:42ID: 24172838

Thanks
the problem is now on the output of that field when the query is run...the below error message appears and I think it is related to zero value on some of the items in the MYDATE field

ERROR
Column MYDATE contains replacement character +.

OUTPUT
     
MYDATE      LAST ACT
++++++++           0
03/15/05  20,050,315
08/05/04  20,040,805
02/25/06  20,060,225
++++++++           0
++++++++           0
++++++++           0
++++++++           0
++++++++           0

 

by: _b_hPosted on 2009-04-17 at 18:27:55ID: 24173052

Let's see if the problem is in the data by printing out what is going into the date function.

Change MYDATE to:
MYDATE    MM || '/' || DD || '/' || YY
and add MYDATE1
MYDATE1 date(mydate)

Include MYDATE and MYDATE1 in your report, and post back!
Barry

 

by: Gary_The_IT_ProPosted on 2009-04-17 at 18:28:42ID: 24173053

Yeah, 00/00/0000 is not a valid date.  Date fields must contain a valid date.  Query/400 isn't equipped to deal with this.

Either fix your data to contain valid dates, or you can create an SQL view that uses the following logic:

CREATE VIEW mylib/myview AS
  SELECT (columns),  
        CASE WHEN mmdtac=0 THEN date('01/01/0001')
         ELSE date(substring(char(mmdtac),5,2) || '/' ||
                   right(char(mmdtac,2) || '/' ||
                   left(char(mmdtac),4))
        END AS mmdtac2
   FROM MYLIB/MYFILE


Then, if you absolutely must use Query/400, you can use the view you created, and it will have valid dates in the MMDTAC2 column.

- Gary Patterson

 

by: daveslaterPosted on 2009-04-20 at 00:31:00ID: 24182489

Hi
Have you thought of a User defined function

here is the code - compile it to UDF0001


you can the use :
select CvtIso2Iso(Mydate) from MYfile

Dave

NoMain                                                                             
*********************************************************************************** 
** Functions to convert numeric dates to dates - used  in SQL                       
*********************************************************************************** 
DCvtDmy2Iso       Pr              d                                                  
D #date                          6  0 Const                                          
DCvtMdy2Iso       Pr              d                                                  
D #date                          6  0 Const                                          
                                                                                      
DCvtYmd2Iso       Pr              d                                                  
D #date                          6  0 Const                                          
                                                                                      
DCvtEur2Iso       Pr              d                                                  
D #date                          8  0 Const                                          
                                                                                     
DCvtIso2Iso       Pr              d                                                  
D #date                          8  0 Const                                          
PCvtDmy2Iso       b                   Export                                              
DCvtDmy2Iso       Pi              d                                                       
D #date                          6  0 Const                                               
                                                                                          
D iso             s               d   DatFmt(*iso)                                        
                                                                                          
 /Free                                                                                    
      Clear Iso ;                                                                         
                                                                                          
        test(de) *dmy #date;                                                              
        if Not %error ;                                                                   
          Iso = %date(#date : *dmy) ;                                                     
        endif ;                                                                           
                                                                                          
       Return Iso ;                                                                       
                                                                                          
 /End-Free                                                                                
P                 e                                                                       
 ***********************************************************************************      
PCvtmdy2Iso       b                   Export                                              
DCvtmdy2Iso       Pi              d                                                     
D #date                          6  0 Const                                             
                                                                                        
D iso             s               d   DatFmt(*iso)                                      
                                                                                        
 /Free                                                                                  
      Clear Iso ;                                                                       
                                                                                        
        test(de) *mdy #date;                                                            
        if Not %error ;                                                                 
          Iso = %date(#date : *mdy) ;                                                   
        endif ;                                                                         
                                                                                        
       Return Iso ;                                                                     
                                                                                        
 /End-Free                                                                              
P                 e                                                                     
 ***********************************************************************************    
PCvtymd2Iso       b                   Export                                            
DCvtymd2Iso       Pi              d                                                     
D #date                          6  0 Const                                            
                                                                                       
D iso             s               d   DatFmt(*iso)                                     
                                                                                       
 /Free                                                                                 
      Clear Iso ;                                                                      
                                                                                       
        test(de) *ymd #date;                                                           
        if Not %error ;                                                                
          Iso = %date(#date : *ymd) ;                                                  
        endif ;                                                                        
                                                                                       
       Return Iso ;                                                                    
                                                                                       
 /End-Free                                                                             
P                 e                                                                    
 ***********************************************************************************   
PCvtEur2Iso       b                   Export                                           
DCvtEur2Iso       Pi              d                                                    
D #date                          8  0 Const                                            
                                                                                                
 D iso             s               d   DatFmt(*iso)                                             
                                                                                                
  /Free                                                                                         
       Clear Iso ;                                                                              
                                                                                                
         test(de) *Eur #date;                                                                   
         if Not %error ;                                                                        
           Iso = %date(#date : *Eur) ;                                                          
         endif ;                                                                                
                                                                                                
        Return Iso ;                                                                            
                                                                                                
  /End-Free                                                                                     
 P                 e                                                                            
  ***********************************************************************************           
 PCvtIso2Iso       b                   Export                                                   
 DCvtIso2Iso       Pi              d                                                            
 D #date                          8  0 Const                                                    
                                                                                                
D iso             s               d   DatFmt(*iso)                                       
                                                                                         
 /Free                                                                                   
      Clear Iso ;                                                                        
                                                                                         
        test(de) *Iso #date;                                                             
        if Not %error ;                                                                  
          Iso = %date(#date : *Iso) ;                                                    
        endif ;                                                                          
                                                                                         
       Return Iso ;                                                                      
                                                                                         
 /End-Free                                                                               
P                 e                                                                      
 
<<<===================================================>>
then to register it - use
 
 
 
H DftActGrp(*No)                                                                         
H ActGrp(*Caller)                                                                        
H/Copy Hspec                                                                             
                                                                                         
 /Free                                                                                   
                                                                                         
      *inlr = *on ;                                                                      
                                                                                         
      exec sql                                                                           
      Drop  function CvtDmy2Iso ;                                                        
      exec sql                                                                           
      Drop  function CvtYmd2Iso ;                                                        
      exec sql                                                                           
      Drop  function Cvtmdy2Iso ;                                                        
      exec sql                                                                           
      Drop  function CvtEur2Iso ;                                                        
      exec sql                                                                           
      Drop  function CvtIso2Iso ;                                                        
 
      exec sql                                                            
      create function CvtDmy2Iso                                          
      (dec (6,0) )                                                        
      returns date                                                        
      language rpgle                                                      
       deterministic                                                      
       no sql                                                             
       returns null on null input                                         
       simple call                                                        
       external name 'QGPL/UDF0001(CVTDMY2ISO)' ;                         
                                                                          
      exec sql                                                            
      create function CvtYMD2Iso                                          
      (dec (6,0) )                                                        
      returns date                                                        
      language rpgle                                                      
       deterministic                                                      
       no sql                                                             
       returns null on null input                                         
       simple call                                                        
       external name 'QGPL/UDF0001(CVTYMD2ISO)' ;                             
                                                                              
      exec sql                                                                
      create function CvtMDY2Iso                                              
      (dec (6,0) )                                                            
      returns date                                                            
      language rpgle                                                          
       deterministic                                                          
       no sql                                                                 
       returns null on null input                                             
       simple call                                                            
       external name 'QGPL/UDF0001(CVTMDY2ISO)' ;                             
                                                                              
      exec sql                                                                
      create function CvtEUR2Iso                                              
      (dec (8,0) )                                                            
      returns date                                                            
      language rpgle                                                          
       deterministic                                                          
       no sql                                                                 
       returns null on null input                                                        
       simple call                                                                       
       external name 'QGPL/UDF0001(CVTEUR2ISO)' ;                                        
                                                                                         
      exec sql                                                                           
      create function CvtISO2Iso                                                         
      (dec (8,0) )                                                                       
      returns date                                                                       
      language rpgle                                                                     
       deterministic                                                                     
       no sql                                                                            
       returns null on null input                                                        
       simple call                                                                       
       external name 'QGPL/UDF0001(CVTISO2ISO)' ;                                        
                                                                                         
                                                                                         
 /End-Free                                                                               
                                              
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by: KALULAXPosted on 2009-04-20 at 12:09:18ID: 31571593

Hey Guys, thanks for your help on this, however, because of SOX, I do not have access to the UDF so I will need to turn over to our programming group. I was able to dump the raw data into Excel and clean up the date issue much more easily. This will have to work for meantime. But many of your other insights will come in handy down the road on other queries.

KALULAX

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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