Re: HELP WITH DATES
This WebDNA talk-list message is from 1997
It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 10479
interpreted = N
texte = >>Will it be able to deal with my preferred YEAR/MONTH/DAY format (as in >>1997/04/23) instead of just understanding MONTH/DAY/YEAR? > >It looks at the preferences for date format (which until now has only >referred to your preference for OUTPUT) and deduces from that what the >date input format should be.Okay, this would solve any problems I might have in using my own date format on my site.>>How is it going to detect whether or not there's a date in the math >>context? In other words, what's it looking for that makes it decide that >>it's dealing with a date instead of a text string? Just the slashes? Or two >>slashes separated by two other characters? or ??? > >It looks for sequences of numbers like xx/xx/xx and assumes that is a >date. So you _cannot_ create a math context that has 2 divisions in a >row. If you use parentheses you could create the 2 divisions.This seems relatively painless to me, and it lets WebDNA recognize a date in its common format, which is the way *most* people will want to store their dates.Just for a point of fact, I almost decided to store my dates in a 'no delimiter' format (you know, by *not* using slashes or anything else to separate the digits) - becasue it would save space in the database. I assume WebDNA would have been able to recognize an 8-digit string of numbers as a date, even without any delimiters, because that's how my date format would have been set in the prefs. But I didn't actually try it to see whether or not it would work, so I don't know for sure.One thing is for sure, and that's the fact that if I *had* used any delimiter other than slashes - including none at all - your proposal for identifying dates by the double slashes in a [math] context would not have worked for me.>I am leaning toward a WebDNA assumption that if there's a date in the math >context anywhere, then it is assumed that the results of the math context >will look like a date instead of a number. > >[math]12/3[/math] yields 4 >[math]12/3/96+1[/math] yields 12/4/96 >[math]12/3/96+0/0/1[/math] yields 12/3/97>The whole idea here is to make the syntax for date manipulation a lot easier.This looks good to me - easy to understand and *not* confusing at all. However, I agree with Jim Shaughnessy that subtracting one date from another to get a signed integer is a common practice and is something that should be taken into consideration. This is good: subtracting one date from another date, resulting in a signed integer adding an integer to a date, resulting in a date subtracting an integer from a date, resulting in a dateBut I do *not* like the idea of putting dates into special brackets, and I don't think it's necessary. You can make WebDNA look for *two* strings with slashes in them, and when it finds those two strings (on either side of a minus sign, for example) it formats the results into a signed integer. Any other math using dates would be date formatted.Sincerely, Ken ------------------------------------ To leave this talk list send an email to macjordomo@smithmicro.com with BODY unsubscribe WebDNA-Talk ------------------------------------
Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:
>>Will it be able to deal with my preferred YEAR/MONTH/DAY format (as in >>1997/04/23) instead of just understanding MONTH/DAY/YEAR? > >It looks at the preferences for date format (which until now has only >referred to your preference for OUTPUT) and deduces from that what the >date input format should be.Okay, this would solve any problems I might have in using my own date format on my site.>>How is it going to detect whether or not there's a date in the math >>context? In other words, what's it looking for that makes it decide that >>it's dealing with a date instead of a text string? Just the slashes? Or two >>slashes separated by two other characters? or ??? > >It looks for sequences of numbers like xx/xx/xx and assumes that is a >date. So you _cannot_ create a math context that has 2 divisions in a >row. If you use parentheses you could create the 2 divisions.This seems relatively painless to me, and it lets WebDNA recognize a date in its common format, which is the way *most* people will want to store their dates.Just for a point of fact, I almost decided to store my dates in a 'no delimiter' format (you know, by *not* using slashes or anything else to separate the digits) - becasue it would save space in the database. I assume WebDNA would have been able to recognize an 8-digit string of numbers as a date, even without any delimiters, because that's how my date format would have been set in the prefs. But I didn't actually try it to see whether or not it would work, so I don't know for sure.One thing is for sure, and that's the fact that if I *had* used any delimiter other than slashes - including none at all - your proposal for identifying dates by the double slashes in a
[math] context would not have worked for me.>I am leaning toward a WebDNA assumption that if there's a date in the math >context anywhere, then it is assumed that the results of the math context >will look like a date instead of a number. > >
[math]12/3[/math] yields 4 >
[math]12/3/96+1[/math] yields 12/4/96 >
[math]12/3/96+0/0/1[/math] yields 12/3/97>The whole idea here is to make the syntax for date manipulation a lot easier.This looks good to me - easy to understand and *not* confusing at all. However, I agree with Jim Shaughnessy that subtracting one date from another to get a signed integer is a common practice and is something that should be taken into consideration. This is good: subtracting one date from another date, resulting in a signed integer adding an integer to a date, resulting in a date subtracting an integer from a date, resulting in a dateBut I do *not* like the idea of putting dates into special brackets, and I don't think it's necessary. You can make WebDNA look for *two* strings with slashes in them, and when it finds those two strings (on either side of a minus sign, for example) it formats the results into a signed integer. Any other math using dates would be date formatted.Sincerely, Ken ------------------------------------ To leave this
Talk List send an email to macjordomo@smithmicro.com with BODY unsubscribe WebDNA-Talk ------------------------------------
Kenneth Grome
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