Hello, I was just doing a quick querry to an amper variable to type out the difference in days between two dates and I constently get a return of 0 Here is the code I am using to try and get what I am looking for:

-SET &DAYSAGO = DATEDIF(20050202, 20080410, 'D');
-TYPE The report was last run &DAYS_AGO days ago.

Every time I try this, I get a 0 in the &DAYS_AGO variable. I'm starting to rip my hair out.

Any suggestions would be wonderful.

Mark,

Here's how to do it in Dialogue Manager:

-SET &DATE1 = 20080101;
-SET &DATE2 = 20080412;
-SET &DIFF = YMD(&DATE1, &DATE2);

-TYPE DIFF: &DIFF

Regards,
Sean

Right on. Thank you very much. Any idea why DATEDIF is not working correctly?

Mark,

We use DATEDIF in TABLE FILE, but not in DM. WF has different functions sometimes between TABLE FILE and DM to accomplish the same operation.

Regards,
Sean

Thank you very much. It worked wonderfully.

The date funcions (DATEDIF, DATEMOV, etc.) do not work with DM variable. This is documented. They work with FOCUS smart date fields. DM variables are just strings of data. For example 20080411 could be Apr 11th, 2008 or it could be 20,080,411. To use these date function, you have to first use DATECVT to convert the string to a smart date and when the computation is done convert the smart date back to a string.

That is partly correct. the DATEDIF,DATEMOV,DATEADD et.al. function only work with smart dates. So by following your suggestion of using DATECVT to tell DM whether you are using strings or dates, it is possible to get what you need in DM with these functions. The following uses DATEMOV and DATEADD to calculate the end date of next month.

-SET &ECHO=ALL;
-SET &PBEG=DATECVT (&YYMD, 'I8YYMD', 'YYMD');
-SET &END_NEXT = DATEADD(&PBEG,'M','1');
-SET &EOM = DATEMOV(&END_NEXT.EVAL,'EOM');
-SET &ENDDTA=DATECVT (&EOM.EVAL,'YYMD','A8YYMD');
-TYPE &ENDDTA

We have been successfully using these functions in DM with no issues. Use of the DATECVT function along with them is the key.