Commands and Statements Commands and Statements

Command SET DATE Foundation

Defines the date format for input and output.

Syntax
SET DATE FORMAT [TO] <cDateFormat>
SET DATE [TO] SYSTEM
            | american | ansi    | british | french
            | german   | italian | japan   | usa
Scope
thread-local
Parameters
<cDateFormat>
<cDateFormat> is a character string containing the date format in a coded form. Positions of the digits for day, month and year are specified in the character string by the letters d, m and y. Characters other than the letters d, m and y are output without change.
When the option FORMAT is not specified, the date format must be selected using one of the key words listed in the following table:
Predefined date formats for use with SET DATE
Key word Date format
AMERICAN mm/dd/yy (American)
ANSI yy.mm.dd (ANSI)
BRITISH dd/mm/yy (British)
FRENCH dd/mm/yy (French)
GERMAN dd.mm.yy (German)
ITALIAN dd-mm-yy (Italian)
JAPAN yy/mm/dd (Japanese)
SYSTEM Date format from the operating system
USA mm-dd-yy (USA)
Description

The command SET DATE defines the application-wide date format for the display of date values. The country specific default setting for the date format is predetermined in DBESYS.PRG when Database Engines are loaded. The call SET DATE TO SYSTEM selects the operating system's date format.

Examples
SET DATE 
// In the example, the date format is defined using a 
// character string and is reset to the system format 
// at the end. 

PROCEDURE Main 

     SET DATE FORMAT TO "dd.mm.yyyy" 
     SET CENTURY ON 

     ? Date()                      // result: 06.12.1994 
     ? DtoS( Date() )              // result: 19941206 

     SET DATE FORMAT TO "yyyymmdd" 
     ? Date()                      // result: 19941206 

     SET DATE TO SYSTEM 

RETURN
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