RE: System Date - can it be 'intercepted' ?

["Marvin Radding" <marvin.radding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a problem we have here in California also.  I created a program
to test what the %date BIF returns using different parameters.  Here are
my results:

The job date was changed to 01/01/11 and the time was 1 pm.

%date(udate): 2011-01-01                  
%date(*date): 2011-01-01                  
     %date(): 2011-02-10                  
       udate:  1/01/11                    
        Time: 13.00.25                    
  Time Stamp: 2011-02-10-13.00.25.995000  

Any date from 02/10/2011 is from the system clock. Any date from
01/01/11 is from the job date. As you can see, it is going to take some
enforced programming standards to get the programmers to use %date with
the proper parameter to get the job date rather than the system date.

Hope this helps. If they are using %date(), you are going to have to
either flag it as a defect or change the system date. Good luck.

Marvin
------------------------------

message: 2
date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:10:47 -0600
from: "Paul Nelson" <nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: RE: System Date - can it be 'intercepted' ?

Can't you use RTVJOBA to grab the date into a variable, and tweak it as
you
need to?

Paul Nelson
Office 512-392-2577
Cell 708-670-6978
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Wiant
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2011 2:00 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: System Date - can it be 'intercepted' ?

Due to architectural decisions I can't control, developers continue to
use %date as the usual way to get the date into a program. But from a
testing standpoint this makes things very difficult. Many things are
date-dependant but need to be tested before that date occurs. And I am
trying to emphasize automated testing so the advice recently given to me
of 'run it in debug and change the date' isn't good enough. That's bad
testing form anyway...
 
I did some digging and I can't find a way to override or control the
system date other than changing the date, which again is not my first
choice because it will affect all testing not just the one I want and
the impact on the journals scare me anyway. 
 
I need to be able to programmatically control the system date a program
gets whether it be CL, COBOL or RPG without actually changing the system
date itself.
 
Thanks
 
James P. Wiant
Test System Administrator
Foodstuffs, Auckland, Ltd.
60 Roma Road
Mt Roskill
Auckland, New Zealand 1041
09-621-0774
jim.wiant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx