RE: REXX and dates from commands

["Goodbar, Loyd (ETS - Water Valley)" <LGoodbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The issue I have is that in command/program CPP environments (CLP, RPG,
etc.), I am assured the command processor presents the date to the CPP in a
consistent, known, format.

The CL command CVTDAT depends on you knowing the date format going in. I'm
not guaranteed that.

As REXX receives the command line parameters "as typed", no date
presentation conversion has taken place. I don't know, for example, if
'100305' meant 3 October 2005 (mdy), 10 March 2005 (dmy), or 5 March 2010
(ymd). I can use the date format from the job or system settings and make
some assumptions. It's really nice that OS/400 performs the work for me and
presents the date in a known manner - '1051003', 3 October 2005.

I think for now I will wrap the REXX procedure in a CL. 

Loyd Goodbar
Senior programmer/analyst
BorgWarner
E/TS Water Valley
662-473-5713

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Raul A. Jager W.
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 15:13
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: REXX and dates from commands

You can retrieve the system date in different formats, but I don't 
remember any date conversion routines, nor date arithmetic in REXX.  
There is a CVTDAT API you can use from REXX.