CTOD( )

Topic group Related topics Example

Interprets a specified character expression as a literal date.

Syntax

CTOD(<expC>)

<expC>

The character expression, in the current date format, to return as a date.

Description

Use CTOD( ) to convert a character expression containing a literal date to a date value. Once you convert the string to a date, you can manipulate it with date functions and date arithmetic.

A literal date must be in format:

<number><separator><number><separator><number>[BC]

where <separator> should be a slash (/), hyphen (-), or period (.). The two <separator> characters should match. You may specify a BC date by including the letters "BC" (not case-sensitve) at the end of the literal date.

To specify a literal date in code, use curly braces ({ }) as literal date delimiters; there is no need to use CTOD( ). For example, there two are equivalent:

{04/05/06}

ctod( "04/05/06" )

The interpretation of the literal date—that is, which numbers are the day, month, and year, and how two-digit years are handled—is controlled by the current settings for SET DATE and SET EPOCH. For example, if SET DATE is MDY and SET EPOCH is 1930, the literal date above is April 5, 2006.

SET DATE also controls the display of dates, while SET EPOCH does not. SET CENTURY controls the display of dates, but has no effect on how dates are interpreted. Two-digit years are always treated as years in the current epoch.

If you pass an invalid date to CTOD( ), it attempts to convert the date to a valid one. For example, it interprets June 31 (June only has 30 days) as July 1. If you pass an empty or non-literal-date string to CTOD( ), it returns an blank date, which is a valid date value.