I was just calculating de difference between two dates when I got some error message:

The codes I input:
DEFINE FILE WHATEVER
-*some other fields
DATERANGE/I8 = DATEDIF(PROJECT_DATE, &YYMD, 'D', 'I8');
END
-*(PROJECT_DATE is a timestamp field in WHATEVER)

Then I got this:
(FOC275) FOCUS FUNCTION HAS INCORRECT NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS: ;

I tried also with COMPUTE command:
COMPUTE DATERANGE/I8 = DATEDIF(PROJECT_DATE, &YYMD, 'D', 'I8');

Then I got this:
(FOC259) FIELDNAME EXCEEDS ITS MAXIMUM SIZE: COMPUTE DATERANGE

I'm using 764 with WIN XP

This message has been edited. Last edited by: minos4,

Is it the problem with timestamp or do I ALWAYS have to convert date type if the date types of two dates are not identical before DATEDIF calculation?

Are unidentical date types nonp-comparable?

Is there a way to transfer timestamp to only dates format?

I tried SQL translation, but can only convert to I8YYMD, to YYMD is impossible, but I8YYMD cannot be compared with YYMD either! So the format is still useless.

Try this:
-DEFAULT &YYMD = 20080101 ; (just to be sure you have a value for this parameter)

DEFINE ...
DATERANGE/I8 = DATEDIF(PROJECT_DATE, &YYMD.EVAL, 'D');
END

If this doesn't work, convert you datatimestamp to an I8 interger and use this field instead of PROJECT_DATE in the DATEDIF syntax.

Hi minos4...

The reason for getting the error is because you are trying to give 4 arguments where DATEDIF take only 3 arguments ..

Try this:

tod/YMD=HDATE((HGETC(10,'HYMDH')), 'YYMD');
DIF/I5=DATEDIF(HIREDATE, tod, 'Y');

Another issue is that you are not feeding parameters of the proper type to your functions. DATEDIF only uses DATE fields - it cannot use a DATETIME field. HDIFF is available for datetime stamps. The comparison must use values of like type so one or the other must be converted.

the HDATE command doesn't work out for me. I don't know why, just can't transfer HYYMDm into YYMD.
Finally I used HGETC to express current time into HYYMDm format so that the two formats match. Then I used HDIFF to calculate 'DAY' differences. This works.