Date/Time Attributes panel

This panel is used to define a field that contains date and time values. The panel lists the date and time field's formatting, data create or modify, and data scrambling attributes.

You can define the format in which the date and time data is stored, if necessary override the data type for the field, and modify the format used to display the date and time. You can also specify data create and field scrambling options.

Panel and field definitions

Figure 1. Date/Time Attributes panel
  Process   Options   Help
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 File Manager                 Date/Time Attributes                              
 Command ===>                                                                   
                                                                                
 Fixed Attributes:                                                              
           Field name  CHAR-DDMMYYYY                                            
                 Type  AN                                                       
                Start  10                                                       
               Length  8                                                        
 Internal Attributes:                                                           
               Format  DDMMYYYY                                       +         
                 Type                                                           
 Output Attributes:                                                             
               Format  DD/MM/YYYY                                     +         
 Create/Modify Attributes:                                                      
            Base Date  20/10/2014                                     +         
                         (Use = for current date/time)                          
       Day Adjustment                                                           
     Month Adjustment                                                           
      Year Adjustment                                                           
 Scrambling Options:                                                            
 Enter "/" to select option                                                     
    Random  Range Start                                               +         
                    End                                               +         
                                                                                
                                                                                
  F1=Help    F2=Split   F3=Exit    F4=Expand  F5=RFind   F7=Up      F8=Down     
  F9=Swap   F10=Left   F11=Right  F12=Cancel  
Internal attributes
Used to define how the date and time value is stored in the field.
Format
Specifies the format in which a date and time value is stored in the field. The format value can be a string containing picture characters supported by the Language Environment® date and time callable services. For example if an 8 byte, external decimal field is used to store a date in the form of a 4 digit year value followed by a 2 digit month value followed by a 2 digit day value you would specify the format string as: 

     YYYYMMDD

You can also enter one of the following formats supported by File Manager:

CENTSECS
Time of day in hundredths of seconds
CBLDATE
COBOL date (the number of days since 31 December 1600)
CYYDDD
Julian date with C as the century indicator (0 = 1900s, 1 = 2000s)
LILDATE
Lilian date (the number of days since 14 October 1582)
LILTIME
Date and time stored as the number of seconds since 00:00:00 14 October 1582.
MICSECS
Time of day in millionths of seconds.
MILLSECS
Time of day in thousandths of seconds.
STCK
Date and time stored as a TOD clock value.
STCKE
Date and time stored as an extended TOD clock value.
Type
Specifies a data type that overrides the data type defined in the field attributes. This is used when the field data type is not appropriate for the processing of the date and time value. For example if an alphanumeric field is used to store microsecond time values BI (binary) can be entered in the Type field to ensure File Manager performs valid processing of the time values.
Output attributes
Used to define how the date and time value is displayed.
Format
Specifies the format used to display the date and time values for this field. You enter the format as a string containing picture characters supported by the Language Environment® date and time callable services. For example to display a date value as a string showing a 3 character day-of-week, a 3 character month, 2 digits for the day of the month, and 4 digits for the year you could specify the format string as: 

      Www Mmm DD, YYYY

When File Manager displays a date and time field in formatted mode, the output width for the field is set to the length of the specified output format.

Create/Modify Attributes
These define the field-specific attributes used by the data create and data copy functions when creating test data for records containing this field.
Base Date
Specifies a date value to be used when creating new data for this field. You enter a date value in the output format defined for this field. You can enter an = to retrieve the current date in the output format.

If you leave this field blank the date at the time the data is created should be used to populate the field.

Day Adjustment
Specifies a value to increment or decrement the day value in the base date. The value should consist of integers optionally preceded by the plus (+) or minus (-) character. The plus character indicates the day value should be incremented. The minus character indicates the day value should be decremented. If a plus or minus character is not specified a plus is assumed.

The increment or decrement value is applied to the day value stored in the field for the previous record. For example, a value of -1 indicates that each subsequent record should have a date value one day earlier than the date value stored in the previous record.

Month Adjustment
Specifies a value to increment or decrement the month value in the base date. The value should consist of integers optionally preceded by the plus (+)or minus (-) character. The plus character indicates the month value should be incremented. The minus character indicates the month value should be decremented. If a plus or minus character is not specified a plus is assumed.

The increment or decrement value is applied to the month value stored in the field for the previous record. For example, a value of +1 indicates that each subsequent record should have a date value one month later than the date value stored in the previous record.

Year Adjustment
Specifies a value to increment or decrement the year value in the base date. The value should consist of integers optionally preceded by the plus (+) or minus (-) character. The plus character indicates the year value should be incremented. The minus character indicates the year value should be decremented. If a plus or minus character is not specified a plus is assumed.

The increment or decrement value is applied to the year value stored in the field for the previous record. For example, a value of -1 indicates that each subsequent record should have a date value one year earlier than the date value stored in the previous record.

Scrambling Options
These options control field scrambling used during copy, import, or export functions to produce test data.
Random
If this option is selected File Manager performs random scrambling when copying values into this date and time field. For random scrambling the same input value will produce different output values on subsequent invocations.

If this option is not selected and range Start and End values are specified File Manager performs repeatable scrambling for this date and time field. Repeatable scrambling means the same input value will produce the same output value on subsequent invocations.

For both random and repeatable scrambling, the Start and End values define the range of acceptable date and time values that File Manager can store in this field.

Start
Specifies a date and time value that is the start of a range of scrambled values that can be stored in this field when copying data into this data set. You enter the date and time value in the output format defined for this field. You can enter an = to retrieve the current date in the output format.
End
Specifies a date and time value that is the end of a range of scrambled values that can be stored in this field when copying data into this data set. You enter the date and time value in the output format defined for this field. You can enter an = to retrieve the current date in the output format.