"Last Day of the Month" and Date-to-Char Formatting

[doom1701]

I've got a process that I run manually right now on the first of every month. Right now I feed it two dates--the last day of the previous month, and the last day of the current month one year earlier. I have to format it with dashes between each segment, and a two digit year. Here's what I need to put in today:

4-30-10
5-31-09

I'm guessing there's a way I can generate this in code, and just setup a scheduled job instead of running it manually. It's obviously not a huge task...but manual none the less.

 

[UncleNel]

I see at least two way of handling your requirement: 1) string function to format the date, e.g. string(today /*some date field*/, "99-99-99"). This is assuming that the date format is "MM/DD/YYYY".
2) If you need to break down the date into individual components, you can use the substitute function, e.g. substitute("&1-&2-&3", string(month(today),"99"), string(day(today),"99"),string(year(today),"99")).

I do not understand you question regarding running it manually versus scheduled, and how this ties into the date formatting requirement? Please explain in more detail.

 

[doom1701]

The part that makes it difficult (for me) to schedule is that I need to calculate those two specific dates--the end of the previous month (04-30-10), and the end of the current month, one year previous (05-31-09). These changes every month--on June 1, I'll need to plug in 05-31-10 and 06-30-09. I know how do do those in .Net, but I've never had to do them in Progress (and I'd rather not try to do a .Net app and all the required connectivity for something like this).

 

[GregTomkins]

I'm not sure if this is what you are asking, but to get the last day of a month, simply and reliably, assuming you don't care about business days etc... just take the first day of the next month and subtract 1.

 

[doom1701]

That would work for the last day of the previous month (assuming I run this on the first on the month, which, on a scheduler, shouldn't be a problem). I still need to get the last day of the current month one year previous, though.

 

[vinod_home]

You would follow the same logic. To get the last day of the current month one year previous.
first day of the next month from previous year would be
( month = today + 1 month
day = 01
year = year of today - 1 )

Then you subtract 1 day.

 

[UncleNel]

I found a month-end function (someone else developed the code - no credit to me) that I have used before and maybe you can adapt it to your requirements.

Function MonthEnd Returns Date ( input inDate As Date):
Return (Date(Month(inDate),28,Year(inDate)) + 4) -
Day(Date(Month(inDate),28,Year(inDate)) + 4).
End.

message string(MonthEnd(today),"99-99-99") skip /*current month*/
string(MonthEnd(today - 4),"99-99-99") skip /*last month*/
string(MonthEnd(today - 365),"99-99-99") skip /*last year*/
string(MonthEnd(02/01/2012),"99-99-99") /*leap year*/
view-as alert-box.
.

 

[TomBascom]

display
  today skip
  date( month( today ), 1, year( today )) - 1 skip
  date( abs( month( today ) - 11 modulo 12 ), 1, year( today ) - 1 ) - 1 skip
.

 

[TomBascom]

Test first, then post

display
  d skip
  date( month( d ), 1, year( d )) - 1 skip
  date(( month( d ) + 13 ) modulo 12, 1, year( d ) - 1 ) - 1 when month( d ) <> 12
  date( 12, 31, year( d ) - 1 ) when month( d ) = 12
.