Get Date

GetDate - Get Relative Date/h2>

The GetDate procedure returns the relative date given a command and day of the week in words.

 result-date  GetDate(
  szCmd         20A     Const Options(*NOPASS)
  szDay         10A     Const Options(*NOPASS)
  baseDate        D     Const Options(*NOPASS) DATFMT(*ISO)

)

See also: DayOfWeek GetDayEx

Parameters

szCmd  [optional]
[input const]  An optional command that controls the relative date to be returned.


szDay [optional]
[input const]  An optional day or day-type to be returned.
 
baseDate [optional]
[input DATE(*ISO) const]  An optional date to use for the operation. If no date is specified, then today's system date is used.

szCmd Parameter Options

These szCmd parameters, when specified, cause any other parameters to be ignored.

Single szCmd Parameter Description
Tomorrow Return tomorrow's date
Yesterday Return yesterday's date
Today Return today's date. This is the default if no parameters are specified.

szCmd Parameter Options

These szCmd parameters, when specified, must be specified in conjunction with the day (szDay) parameter.

szCmds Requiring
an szDay Parameter		 Description
Next Return the next szDay'sdate
Previous Return the previous szDay's date
First Return the date of the first occurrence of szDay in the month of the date specified on the date parameter.
Last Return the date of the last occurrence of szDay in the month of the date specified on the date parameter.
This Return the date of the next szDay's date unless the date is already the same as szDay's, then it returns the same date. See examples below for more details.
First or 1 Return the 1st date of the month for the szDay specified.
Second or 2 Return the 2nd date of the month for the szDay specified.
Third or 3 Return the 3rd date of the month for the szDay specified.
Fourth or 4 Return the 4th date of the month for the szDay specified.
Fifth or 5 Return the 5th date of the month for the szDay specified.
Count Return the count of the number of times szDay occurs in the month specified for base date.
szDay Parameter Options Description
Sunday Return the date for the Sunday specified on the szCmd parameter.
Monday Return the date for the Monday specified on the szCmd parameter.
Tuesday Return the date for the Tuesday specified on the szCmd parameter.
Wednesday Return the date for the Wednesday specified on the szCmd parameter.
Thursday Return the date for the Thursday specified on the szCmd parameter.
Friday Return the date for the Friday specified on the szCmd parameter.
Saturday Return the date for the Saturday specified on the szCmd parameter.
Workday Return the date for the relative Workday (Monday through Friday date) specified on the szCmd parameter.

Only the first 3 characters of the szCmd and szDay parameter are interpreted. The remaining characters (if any) are ignored.

The szCmd and szDay parameters are not case sensitive.

 

Return Value

The return value is the date of the relative day requested, or January 01, 0001 if an error occurs.

Examples

In the example that follows, a relative date is returned for the previous work day, next Wednesday, and the date for the 2nd Tuesday of the month of November 2004.

The final four GetDate() calls return the date for "next" Saturday and "this" Saturday respectively. These are identified in the examples as Group 2 and Group 3.

     D dtNov           S               D   INZ(D'2004-11-01')
     D NextWorkDay     S               D   
     D WeekEnding      S               D   
     D NextWed         S               D   
     D ElectionDay     S               D  
 
      ** Group 1
     C                   eval      nextWorkDay = GetDate('PREV':'WORKDAY')
     C                   eval      nextWed     = GetDate('Next':'Wed')
     C                   eval      ElectionDay = GetDate('Second':'Tuesday': dtNOV)
      ** Group 2
     C                   eval      NextSat     = GetDate('Next':'Saturday': D'2004-08-21')
     C                   eval      WeekEnding  = GetDate('This':'Saturday': D'2004-08-21')
      ** Group 3
     C                   eval      NextSat2    = GetDate('Next':'Saturday': D'2004-08-20')
     C                   eval      WeekEnding2 = GetDate('This':'Saturday': D'2004-08-20')

In Group 2, the input date is also a Saturday date, which is what is being requested. TheGetDate('Next':'Saturday': D'2004-08-21') statement option returns the date of August 28, 2004. Whereas the GetDate('This':'Saturday': D'2004-08-21')statement returns a date of August 21, 2004. This is a subtle but important difference to understand. The "next" option always returns the next date, even if the input day matches the day being requested.

In Group 3, the input date is a Friday, August 20, 2004. In this situation both the "next" and "this" GetDate() statements return a date of Saturday, August 21, 2004.