I've read everything I can find - and I can't seem to make this work. The original table is MS SQL. The master was generated with datetime off and the usage was set to YYMD. Now I want to use dowk on that field - but it fails if used directly on that field because it is not "really" a YYMD field. I've tried to convert it - but that is the part I can't seem to get right.

This is the field in the master:
FIELDNAME=TEST_DATE, ALIAS='Test Date', USAGE=YYMD, ACTUAL=DATE, FIELDTYPE=R,

This is what I have tried for converting it:
DAY2/YYMD=DATECVT(TEST_DATE, 'HYYMDs', 'YYMD');
DAY3/A3=DOWK(DAY2, 'A3');
DAY4/I2=DECODE DAY3( 'SUN' 1 'MON' 2 'TUE' 3 'WED' 4 'THU' 5 'FRI' 6 'SAT' 7);

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

Is it in the database available as HYYMDs?

In the SQL table it is a standard SQL datetime field. I generated the master with datetime off.

If I do this:
DAY3/A3=DOWK(TEST_DATE, 'A3');

I get this error:
(FOC36355) INVALID TYPE OF ARGUMENT #1 FOR USER FUNCTION DOWKI

You might give functions HNAME or HPART a try. They can be used to extract day of week (dw) from datetime data. Also, function HDATE is an easier way to convert datetime fields to Smart Dates.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dan Satchell,

Hi Dan,

Appreciate the help - but that does not work either.

If I had generated it with datetime on - the field in the master file would have been defined as 'HYYMDs' - but I generated it with datetime off. If I try to use it in any field that does require a time compnonent (HDATE,HPART, etc) it behaves as if it is a YYMD (and fails as YYMD is not a datetime format). If I try to use it with DOWK, which require a YYMD format - it behaves as if it is NOT a YYMD field.

This:
DDATE/YYMD=HDATE(TEST_DATE, 'YYMD');

Results:
(FOC36355) INVALID TYPE OF ARGUMENT #1 FOR USER FUNCTION HDATE

you can create an other line in your master

FIELDNAME=DAYTIME, ALIAS='Test Date', USAGE=HYYMDs, ACTUAL=HYYMDs, FIELDTYPE=R,

this will show you the date and time

Sorry I didn't remember this earlier, but DOWK is a legacy function and requires legacy dates as input. Try this:

DAY2/I8YYMD = TEST_DATE ;
DAY3/A3     = DOWK(DAY2,'A3');
DAY4/I2     = DECODE DAY3( 'SUN' 1 'MON' 2 'TUE' 3 'WED' 4 'THU' 5 'FRI' 6 'SAT' 7);

Frank & Dan - I'd like to thank you both.

Both solutions worked. I can't believe I overlooked that dowk uses legacy dates - thank you for pointing that out.