DATE

Syntax

DATE(date_string [, format])

Parameters

date_string

A text representing a valid date.

format

One of the keywords in the table under "Valid Format Keywords," specifying the date format of date_string.

Description

DATE converts a date string into a Julian date (the number of days elapsed since January 1, 0000). Virtually any date format is supported via the optional format keyword, which specifies how the date is represented. If no format keyword is supplied, the default of DELIM_M_D_Y is used.

Date formats are either fixed-width (for example, the date February 28, 1970 is represented as 02281970 in MMDDYYYY format), or delimited (for example, February 28, 1970, 2-28-1970, or 02/28/1970). All of the previous examples are variants of DELIM_M_D_YY format.

In delimited formats, delimiters are slash (/), dash(-), space ( ), comma (,), or colon (:); years can be represented by either 2 or 4 digits; and months can be fully spelled out (for example, February), abbreviated (for example, Feb), or numeric (for example, 2 or 02).

For all years specified as two-digits:

Two-digit years less than the Year 2000 threshold (default is 20, but can be set by the user) are considered to be in the 2000's.

Two-digit years greater than or equal to the threshold are considered to be in the 1900's.

This macro is available in IBM® Unica® Interact.

Examples

DATE("8/31/2000") returns the number 730729.

Valid Format Keywords

Keyword	Description	Example(s)
MM	2-digit month	01, 02, 03, ..., 12
MMDD	2-digit month and 2-digit day	March 31 is 0331
MMDDYY	2-digit month, 2-digit day, and 2-digit year	March 31, 1970 is 033170
MMDDYYYY	2-digit month, 2-digit day, and 4-digit year	March 31, 1970 is 03311970
DELIM_M_D	Any delimited month followed by day	March 31, 3/31, or 03-31
DELIM_M_D_Y	Any delimited month, day, and year	March 31, 1970 or 3/31/70
DELIM_Y_M	Any delimited year followed by month	March, 70; 3-70; or 3/1970
DELIM_Y_M_D	Any delimited year, month, and day	1970 Mar 31 or 70/3/31
YYMMM	2-digit year and 3-letter month	70MAR
YYMMMDD	2-digit year, 3-letter month, and 2-digit day	70MAR31
YY	2-digit year	70
YYMM	2-digit year and 2-digit month	7003
YYMMDD	2-digit year, 2-digit month, and 2-digit day	700331
YYYYMMM	4-digit year and 3-letter month	1970MAR
YYYYMMMDD	4-digit year, 3-letter month, and 2-digit day	1970MAR31
YYYY	4-digit year	1970
YYYYMM	4-digit year and 2-digit month	197003
YYYYMMDD	4-digit year, 2-digit month, and 2-digit day	19700331
DELIM_M_Y	Any delimited month followed by year	3-70, 3/70, Mar 70, March 1970
DELIM_D_M	Any delimited day followed by month	31-3, 31/3, 31 March
DELIM_D_M_Y	Any delimited day, month, and year	31-MAR-70, 31/3/1970, 31 03 70
DD	2-digit day	31
DDMMM	2-digit day and 3-letter month	31MAR
DDMMMYY	2-digit day, 3-letter month, and 2-digit year	31MAR70
DDMMMYYYY	2-digit day, 3-letter month, and 4-digit year	31MAR1970
DDMM	2-digit day and 2-digit month	3103
DDMMYY	2-digit day, 2-digit month, and 2-digit year	310370
DDMMYYYY	2-digit day, 2-digit month, and 4-digit year	31031970
MMYY	2-digit month and 2-digit year	0370
MMYYYY	2-digit month and 4-digit year	031970
MMM	3-letter month	MAR
MMMDD	3-letter month and 2-digit day	MAR31
MMMDDYY	3-letter month, 2-digit day, and 2-digit year	MAR3170
MMMDDYYYY	3-letter month, 2-digit day, and 4-digit year	MAR311970
MMMYY	3-letter month and 2-digit year	MAR70
MMMYYYY	3-letter month and 4-digit year	MAR1970
MONTH	Month of the year	January, February, March, and so on or Jan, Feb, Mar, and so on
WEEKDAY	Day of the week	Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and so on (Sunday = 0)
WKD	Abbreviated day of the week	Sun, Mon, Tues, and so on (Sun = 0)

Related Functions

Function	Description
DATE_FORMAT	Converts dates from one format to another.
DATE_JULIAN	Returns the Julian date of the input.
DATE_STRING	Returns the date string of the Julian date.
CURRENT_DATE	Returns the current date in a specified format.