I am trying to print the date used as a report input parameter to the report title but to display it in a different format. I am current prompting for START_DT whose date format is YYMD (ie: 20060930). When I add this to the heading title for display as &START_DT, it displays fine as 20060930. I want to display is as 09/30/2006.

I have added a define to change the format of the prompt field:

df_START_DT/MDYY = &START_DT

The code for the heading is as follows:

HEADING
"Billing Account Report"
"PO Nbr : &PO_NBR , Vendor : "Date Range From : &Start_DT

When I run it a get the error: INVALID DATE CONSTANT.

I've tried other formats but get similiar results. What am I doing wrong?

Guillo, you've got to convert it first.
It starts life as a characterstring.
you have to convert it from a character string to a smart date.
You can use the DATECVT function if you like, it works fine in DM.
There are a lot of other ways

Susannah, thank you for the quick response.

I've tried the following format on the DEFINE:

df_Start_DT/MDYY = DATECVT(&Start_DT,YYMD,MDYY);

But after running it I get:

(FOC258) FIELDNAME OR COMPUTATIONAL ELEMENT NOT RECOGNIZED: YYMD

Is the input format for the DATECVT function the right one?

Syntax:

DATECVT(date, 'infmt', 'outfmt');

I believe that I've used the format as you've indicated. I guess what I'm asking is, is the standard form for dates actually YYMD since what is displayed and entered in the prompt is in the form of: 20061001 (YYMD)?

-SET &START_DT ='20060906';
DEFINE FILE CAR
DF_START_DX/YYMD = DATECVT(&START_DT,'I8YYMD','YYMD');
DF_START_DT/MDYY = DATECVT('&START_DT','A8YYMD','MDYY');
END
TABLE FILE CAR
PRINT DF_START_DT
DF_START_DX
BY COUNTRY
END

The quotes around the in and out are required and since &start_dt is not really YYMD you need I8 or A8 and quotes as needed.

Sandy

nuance...format YYMD indicates a 'smart date'
a smart date is an integer , the number days elapsed since the beginning of the last millenium, its a number on the order of 38000.
Your &var date is most likely 20060517
which isn't YYMD, its I8YYMD, even tho it might look like YYMD, it isn't.

DM "thinks" in alpha or numeric only. You can define a smart date field directly from a DM variable. I think yours didn't work because you tried to drop &START_DT into a MDYY and 20 is not a valid month.

Although you've been given a solution, I wanted to post about why your initial approach didn't work. You could have tweaked it as follows:
-SET &VAR1 = 20060930;
DEFINE FILE CAR
DATE1/YYMD = &VAR1;
DATE2/MDYY = DATE1;
-* or if you want to do it in one step...
DATE3/MDYY =
EDIT(EDIT('&VAR1','$$$$99') | EDIT('&VAR1','$$$$$$99') | EDIT('&VAR1','9999'));
END
-*
TABLE FILE CAR
HEADING
"DATE2: "DATE3: PRINT COUNTRY
END
Always a bunch of ways to do stuff in FOCUS....

quote:

Originally posted by Guillo:
I am trying to print the date used as a report input parameter to the report title but to display it in a different format. I am current prompting for START_DT whose date format is YYMD (ie: 20060930). When I add this to the heading title for display as &START_DT, it displays fine as 20060930. I want to display is as 09/30/2006.

I have added a define to change the format of the prompt field:

df_START_DT/MDYY = &START_DT

The code for the heading is as follows:

HEADING
"Billing Account Report"
"PO Nbr : &PO_NBR , Vendor : "Date Range From : &Start_DT

When I run it a get the error: INVALID DATE CONSTANT.

I've tried other formats but get similiar results. What am I doing wrong?

is &START_DT an input field then you need to user it as
df_START_DT/MDYY = '&START_DT';

one minor change. put &START_DT in single quotes

Thank you all for your responses.

I applied the approach that Sandy suggested and it worked beautifully. I only had to add the DEFINE statements as follows:

df_Start_DT/MDYY = DATECVT('&Start_DT','A8YYMD','MDYY');
df_End_DT/MDYY = DATECVT('&End_DT','A8YYMD','MDYY');

The final results printed, which is what I was after, was:

Date Range From : 10/01/2005 To : 09/29/2006

This approach seemed simple to apply with good results.