John Dunlop ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
: [This note has been sent to the following InterNet address(es):
: [log in to unmask]]
: Wirt Atmar wrote :
: <snip>
: >The vast majority of the major applications in existence on the HP3000 use
: >text field dates. Moreover, I have come to strongly believe that only the
[ snip ]
 
: While I agree with Wirt in principle, I have recently found it necessary to
: modify
: a database I designed to use the Powerhouse date format (numerical) rather
: than the normal text field. This was mainly because I needed to include the
: century in the several date fields and the sheer volume and complexity of
extra
: coding in Powerhouse Quick to cater for the editing, reading and writing of
the
 
Actually, PowerHouse allows you to define (either on the Element) or
Item level how a logical DATE datatype is physically stored. Thus,
you could define BILL_DATE as a zoned-unsigned type. Given that we
know that it logically of type DATE, PowerHouse treats it as a date
while an external process may see it as a 'string'.
 
This was not an uncommon thing to see people do in PowerHouse on a 3000
so they could reference a date as an aggregate structure of CC,YY,MM
and DD parts.
 
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