Oracle-L: RE: Boolean dates...

From: DENNIS WILLIAMS <DWILLIAMS_at_lifetouch.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 07:54:50 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.005D3F96.20031022075450@fatcity.com>

Jose

My guess is that your old application has its own format to keep track of dates. Maybe someone on this list may identify the format from memory, otherwise my guess is that you will need to figure it out for yourself or get your hands on that algorithm your boss alluded to. Even with the algorithm you'll still want to verify your understanding by the following test. For a sample of dates, you need the date as it is stored in number format, then the calendar date that number translates to. From that, you can decode the pattern. You will probably need to write a simple SQL algorithm to translate the stored date into a calendar date, which you can store in Oracle. This may sound complicated, but it isn't all that complicated once you get into it. In my experience, the two typical patterns used are the number of days since a base date, or the current year concatenated with the Julian days of the current year (older systems tend to use the term Julian differently than Oracle does). Offhand, yours looks like the first, but that is just a guess.

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 10:19 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Hi to all!

We have an old app that manages something that my boss calls: boolean dates.

He told me that exists an algorithm that manages dates as a boolean format.

We have several tables in this form:

Note: The following table: PAAM
has the field BDATE defined as NUMBER.

sql> select bdate from paam
sql> where rownum < 6

BDATE

728464
728434
728403
728495
728283

now, I need to convert that format to an 'understandable' format to get the old data and old dates.

I'm looking (google-ing) for that subject but, without luck.

any ideas? help?, pls...

Thanks in advance

Regards!
JL

Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com
--

Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
--

Author: Jose Luis Delgado
INET: joseluis_delgado_at_yahoo.com

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------

To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
--

Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
--

Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS
INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------