Re: How to use date mask 'dd-MON-rr'?

suisum_at_freenet.edmonton.ab.ca () wrote:

>Hi:
>
>When I read from the user manual, I find the description for date mask RR
>is:
>
> last two digits of year for years in other centuries.
>
>Can anyone explain this statement to me in details with example, please?
>
>What is the difference between YYYY and RR for input and output fields?
>And which one is better to beat the year 2K problem?
>
>--
>Best regards,

You'll get lots of opinions on this, but here's mine...

The rr format is a 'workaround' to allow 2 digit year entry with some hope of getting the century right....it uses the year entered to determine which ( of 2, 19 or 20 ) century to use - if the year is 50 to 99 the current century (19) is used, for 00 to 49 the next is used ( 20) -----

This limits the dates you can use to one of the 2 centuries....That may be OK, but why settle for a limit?

Use the YYYY format for all date fields and the Y2K problem ( at least regarding dates ) will not apply -

However, the application designer must insure the use of the YYYY format by forcing the input to be correct - in Forms you can use FXMM-DD-YYYY as a format mask to force ( hence the FX ) an exact match of the format.....

Hope it helps,
John Greco
OracleDBA/Application Designer Received on Wed Jul 22 1998 - 14:47:06 CDT