Re: YEAR 2000 Problem with existing Databases

Bruno GEORGES <georgeb_at_worldnet.net> wrote:

> Is there anybody who knows what are the main problems generated by this
> issue, and what are the actions to consider in an Information System.

In my field (library automation databases), one problem is the comparison of two years to count the number of years/days etc in between, if you only store the year as 2 digits you get negative results - ie:

96 - 95 = 1 one year between the two dates, but

00 - 96 = -96 ! <- this result should be 4

so all the statistics generated are thrown out - the only true solution is to increase the number of digits in the year field, but this can be a problem on:

• large databases
• ones which can't off-line for re-structuring
• ones stored on slow media

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