Re: Forms 4.5: Y2K Date Format to use

skondolf_at_frontiernet.net (Steven C. Kondolf) wrote:

>As a fairly new forms 4.5 developer and with all the discussions going on
>relative to the y2k changover, what date format is proper to use for
>current forms to insure accurate data entry as well as correct century
>display both now and after 12/31/1999?
>
>I've noticed the "RRRR" format. Is this the suggested format to use for
>the year portion? Are most people writing forms that force you to enter
>the entire 4-digit year or is there a way to accurately default the proper
>century if only a 2-digit year is entered?
>
>We're currently on the 16 bit version of forms 4.5 but will be upgrading to
>32-bit version 1.6.1 in the near future. Are there any differences between
>the 2 that I need to be aware of?
>
>Looking for some guidance as well as suggestions. Thanks.
>
>Steve
>skondolf_at_hatespam.frontiernet.net
>skondolf_at_hatespam.compuserve.com
>
>*** email addresses altered to foil spammers !! ***
>*** Remove hatespam. from address before sending ***

Its practically a 'religious' issue these days, but my thought is to use the full YYYY format for the year portion of Date fields to avoid problems with the century - this will work for any date 1699,1899,2199 etc....Set it for the Database in the NLS_DATE_FORMAT entry in the init(sid).ora file - also make sure that the clients have the same ( or no ) formats set....
In your forms FORCE the users to enter 4 digits by using the FX prefix to the format mask e.g. FXMM/DD/YYYY will only accept input of the form 12/21/2011 - it will reject any variance ( including the / s ) ....In my humble ( like I'm humble ) opinion, this is the way I would go to prevent future Y2K type problems....

John Greco
Oracle DBA/Application Developer Received on Thu Jul 16 1998 - 11:05:26 CDT