Date and Time Formats

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# Date and Time Formats

This section describes the date and time formats Entire Operation uses for processing system function and producing output reports. These formats are independent of the format options Windows provides in an Entire Operations GUI environment.

The date displayed in a window is represented in the Entire Operations default format selected in the Date format field of the Entire Operations Defaults (see the Administration documentation).

If you enter a date or specify a data as a parameter, the syntax must conform to the format set in the Entire Operations defaults. Otherwise, you receive an appropriate error message indicating that the date or time does not match the required format.

This document covers the following topics:

- Date Display and Input Options

- Time Display and Input Options

## Date Display and Input Options

Possible date representations and valid input values for date fields are described in the following section.

Input fields for dates have different lengths and you may have to (or can optionally) shorten the input string. Entire Operations always treats shortened input (or output fields) with the century.

A shortened input string is always extended to a complete date (even when not representable in the window), according to the default format set for your environment. This is indicated in the following examples that assume the current date is December 30, 2016.

Date Pattern | Date Format Setting/Selection Option | Examples
--- | --- | ---
`DD.MM.YY` | `G` German DD.MM.YY German format. | 30.12.16
301216
30.12
3012
`DD/MM/YY` | `E` European DD/MM/YY European format. | 30/12/16
301216
`MM/DD/YY` | `A` American MM/DD/YY American format. | 12/30/16
123016
`YY-MM-DD` | `I` International YY-MM-DD International format (default). | 16-12-30
161230
1612
`YYYYMMDD` | `8` 8 digits YYYYMMDD Eight-digit format. | 20161230
2016

#### Explanations:

- `DD` is a two-digit day, `MM` a two-digit month, `YY` a two-digit year and `YYYY` a four-digit year.

  A two-digit year is internally always processed with four digits.

- Input of a year value is optional. If you omit the year, the current year is used.

  If Entire Operations interprets an input string as a past date (relative to the current date), an appropriate message occurs.

- The century that relates to a 2-digit year value is determined by using a sliding window that assumes the date to be within a range of +50/-50 years, relative to the current year. For example:

  If the current year is 2016, the sliding window will cover the years 1966 to 2065. A 2-digit year value nn from 66 to 99 is interpreted accordingly as 19nn, while a 2-digit year value nn from 00 to 65 is interpreted as 20nn.

- Input of the separator characters slash (`/`), period (`.`) and dash (`-`) is optional. If you omit the separators, the input string is extended to a complete date.

## Time Display and Input Options

The time is represented in one of the following formats:

Syntax | Example | Complete Time
--- | --- | ---
`HH:II:SS` | `145231` | 14:52:31
`1452` | 14:52:00
`14:53` | 14:53:00
`14` | 14:00:00

#### Explanations:

- `HH` is a two-digit hour, `II` a two-digit minute and `SS` a two-digit second.

  The hour range is `0` to `23`. The range for minutes and seconds is `0` to `59`.

- Input of minutes and seconds is optional. If you omit the minutes and/or seconds, the input string is extended to a complete time.

- Input of the separator character colon (`:`) is optional. If you omit the separators, the input string is extended to a complete time.

### On this page

- Date Display and Input Options
- Time Display and Input Options