I'm trying to subtract 48 hrs from the current date and time and I would like to do this without having to calculate date and time separately. This is what I have so far but All I get for the &prev_48 is the year and a strange character. Any suggestions?

-SET &DATE_TIME = HCNVRT(HGETC(8, 'HYYMDS'),'(HYYMDS)',20, 'A20');

-SET &PREV_48 = HADD(&DATE_TIME, 'HOUR',-48, 8, 'HYYMDS');

This is what the output looks like

2014/02/14 12:22:11
2014ú/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Kathryn Henning>,

Try this:

-SET &PREV_48 = HCNVRT(HADD(HGETC(8, 'HYYMDS'), 'HOUR', -48, 8, 'HYYMDS'), '(HYYMDS)',20,'A20');
-TYPE &PREV_48

This may make it a bit clearer:

-SET &DATE_TIME_HYYMDS = HGETC(8, 'HYYMDS');
-SET &PREV_48_HYYMDS   = HADD(HGETC(8, 'HYYMDS'), 'HOUR', -48, 8, 'HYYMDS');
-SET &DATE_TIME        = HCNVRT(&DATE_TIME_HYYMDS, '(HYYMDS)', 20, 'A20');
-SET &PREV_48          = HCNVRT(&PREV_48_HYYMDS, '(HYYMDS)',20,'A20');

-TYPE &DATE_TIME
-TYPE &PREV_48

HADD() requires a "date-time" parameter to operate upon, not the string representation of a date and time (A20). That's explains the strange symbols you were getting in WF 7.6.

WebFOCUS 7.7.x has stricter data type validations and fails with an error making it easier to debug:

(FOC36355)  INVALID TYPE OF ARGUMENT #1 FOR USER FUNCTION HADD

Thank you, both options worked and thanks for the clarification on date-time parameter vs string of date and time.

Running into a different issue now and believe it is related to the whole sting vs date-time format.

I'm trying to define a field based on what we set above but I'm getting syntax error (FOC224) SYNTAX ERROR: 18:26:45


DEFINE FILE PROBSUMMARYM1
prev48/HYYMDS=&PREV_48;

I tried the following

-SET &TEST = HINPUT(20, '&PREV_48', 8, 'HYYMDS');

I'm able to define a field using &TEST but when I check to see the value by -TYPE &TEST it doesn't diplay anything.

What am I not understanding between alphanumeric sting vs date format?

quote:

Originally posted by Tonyperkis:
Running into a different issue now and believe it is related to the whole sting vs date-time format.

I'm trying to define a field based on what we set above but I'm getting syntax error (FOC224) SYNTAX ERROR: 18:26:45

It's a string literal, it requires quotes. The best way in this case is to use &PREV_48.QUOTEDSTRING.

Don't use .QUOTEDSTRING on parameters that can be FOC_NONE though, it will translate the value in the string 'FOC_NONE' causing WF to not ignore the line that parameter is on.

quote:

DEFINE FILE PROBSUMMARYM1
prev48/HYYMDS=&PREV_48;

I tried the following

-SET &TEST = HINPUT(20, '&PREV_48', 8, 'HYYMDS');

I'm able to define a field using &TEST but when I check to see the value by -TYPE &TEST it doesn't diplay anything.

What am I not understanding between alphanumeric sting vs date format?

You're trying to assign a DATETIME value to a dialog manager variable. DM doesn't understand DATETIMEs. FOCUS does, however, so this should work:

DEFINE FILE PROBSUMMARYM1
  TEST  = HINPUT(20, '&PREV_48', 8, 'HYYMDS');
END

Your other mistake in above code is putting a DM variable between quotes in DM code. If you do that, the variable will not be evaluated, so there's a literal '&PREV_48' in your statement and that's not a valid value for a DATETIME. However, in FOCUS code that does work (and often the opposite won't).

You'll need to be more aware of when you're using DM and when you're using FOCUS, as the two are different languages. DM is more like a pre-processor language, while FOCUS does the databasy stuff.