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Utah Jeff
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 Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 9:22 pm Post subject: BDE Century Date problem |
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I have a client that is running a program written in D5 and using BDE
5.01 running on XP home. We do not have access to the source code.
There are only 2 digits available for the birth year. When they enter
41 for 1941 the system stores it as 2041. I looked at the BDE Init
settings and tried all combinations of FOURDIGITYEAR and YEARBIASED.
I keep seeing references to changing a Windows date format. Is there a
fix for this problem since we do not have the source code? Where is
the Windows date format setting they are talking about? |
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DB-1
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| Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 9:22 am Post subject: Re: BDE Century Date problem |
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Utah Jeff wrote:
| Quote: |
I looked at the BDE Init
settings and tried all combinations of FOURDIGITYEAR and YEARBIASED.
I keep seeing references to changing a Windows date format. Is there a
fix for this problem since we do not have the source code? Where is
the Windows date format setting they are talking about?
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The first thing is to peek what is actually stored to the Paradox/dBase
database field. The BDE programmer's way to see inside database files is
to use the Database Desktop application that comes with Delphi
development environment.
But if you do not have Delphi, you do not have access to that tool. Then
you could use some free replacement tool like this for instance
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jedidbd/jedidbd_install_0.2.0.0.exe?download
If your application has internal program fault that makes some
calculations with two year digits, and then stores a wrong century to
the database, then there's not much you can do, but to abandon the
application. Or to find a skillfull hacker who possibly could hack the
EXE file, but this is not likely.
Date/Time values can be stored as a Float number, and Date values as
Integer numbers to some numeric DB field, and the programmer could have
used these tricks also. Then your Database Desktop tool may not even
find a Date Field that would look like a Date at all, like 17 May 2006,
but a integer representation 732448 of that date.
Of course, if you are lucky you could find some Win/BDE setting that
turns everything back to order again.
DB-1 |
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Dan
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 5:22 pm Post subject: Re: BDE Century Date problem |
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On 16 May 2006 13:23:57 -0700, "Utah Jeff" <jfullmer (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
| Quote: | I have a client that is running a program written in D5 and using BDE
5.01 running on XP home. We do not have access to the source code.
There are only 2 digits available for the birth year. When they enter
41 for 1941 the system stores it as 2041. I looked at the BDE Init
settings and tried all combinations of FOURDIGITYEAR and YEARBIASED.
I keep seeing references to changing a Windows date format. Is there a
fix for this problem since we do not have the source code? Where is
the Windows date format setting they are talking about?
|
Here is some more background info which might help:
from the Delphi Help file
TwoDigitYearCenturyWindow Determines what century is added to
two-digit years when string dates are converted to numeric dates with
StrToDate or StrToDateTime The value of TwoDigitYearCenturyWindow, if
it is nonzero, is subtracted from the current year to calculate the
floating “pivot” prior to which two-digit years are interpreted as
falling in the next century. The default value is 50. You can use
TwoDigitYearCenturyWindow to extend the life of legacy applications
that are tied to two-digit-year data entry; but the best solution is
to require four-digit input for years.
As I understand it, this is a variable internal to your Delphi app.
Other formatting vars are stored in the Windows registry where you can
set them outside of the app. If your app uses the StrToDate or
DateTime routines, [which it almost certainly does for date entry],
the app will send a four digit year to the BDE, or an integer date
code with the year already set. This is probably why you have not been
able to make any difference with BDE settings.
The only workaround that comes to mind is to have the users always
enter the year as four digits. Depending on how the date entry
controls were set up by the programmer, they might take a four digit
year. My programs all will allow the user to enter a two or four digit
year, and the full four digit entry overrides the century window
setting. [BTW, the value of the 'pivot' year can by made settable by
the user if this makes good sense in an individual application.]
HTH,
Dan |
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