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FDATE Version 6.1a Feb 14, 1992 =================================================================== FDATE: a utility for date manipulation in batch files. =================================================================== Stephen Ferg 5113 N. 8th Road, Arlington, VA 22205-1201 Voice (703) 525-2241 CompuServe 73377,1157 ======================================================================= Format: FDATE /Ffunc /Adate /Bdate /Iformat /Oformat /Nnum /Ddayofweek /Pstring /Sstring ======================================================================= FDATE PARAMETERS ================ The parameters that are required depend on the function requested. Parameters that are specified, but not needed, are ignored. Executing FDATE without any parameters displays a brief help screen. Parameters can be in any order and upper or lower case. Note that although format specifications are not case sensitive, they ARE "text sensitive". If any characters are missing, added, or mistyped, the format specification will be rejected. (A common mistake is to enter "/format" instead of "/Fformat". This mistake can be avoided by using the /Ff function alias.) /F requests a particular FDATE function If this parameter is not specified, or is specified incorrectly, FDATE displays a help screen. If you unexpectedly get the help screen displayed, you probably have omitted the /F parameter. /N number of days (always a number) /D day-of-week number (used only with W function) /A date A (for date functions) /B date B (for date functions) If the /A parameter is omitted, /Atoday is assumed. If the /B parameter is omitted, /Btoday is assumed. /A number A (for math functions) /B number B (for math functions) /I specifies format of input date(s) If the /I parameter is omitted, /Imm-dd-ccyy is assumed. /O specifies format of output date If the /O parameter is omitted, /Od1 is assumed. /L specifies language of output. /Lus US (American) English-language output /Lfr French-language output If the /L parameter is omitted, /Lus [American English] is assumed. /V specifies that output is to be placed in an environment variable rather than written to standard output (i.e. to the screen). /P specifies a prefix string for the output /S specifies a suffix string for the output Maximum length for a prefix or suffix string is 80 bytes. These optional parameters may always be specified or omitted. They must be enclosed in single quotes, double quotes, or square brackets Note that "whitespace" will be removed from these strings, so formatting of /P and /S strings cannot be controlled using spaces. To format strings, use periods or ASCII 255 (hex'ff') as filler. EXAMPLES FDATE /Ff /At /Od1 /P"Today is " FDATE /Fdif /At /B12-25-TTTT /S" days until Christmas" FDATE /Fdif /At /B12-25-TTTT /P"It is " /S" days 'til Xmas" FDATE /Ff /A05-08-TTTT /S[ -- "Buffalo Bill's" birthday] ERROR HANDLING ============== If FDATE detects an error: (1) it will return an errorlevel of 1 (rather than 0), and (2) its output will be 3 lines: * the word ERROR * a DOS batch-file ECHO statement that displays an error message * a DOS batch-file PAUSE statement If Fdate output is displayed directly, or redirected to NUL: you can detect an error by testing the errorlevel for a value of 1. If Fdate output is piped to an environment manipulation utility such as STRINGS or GET, the environment variable will be set to ERROR. Errorlevel will be set by STRINGS/GET, and will probably be 0. In such a case, the only way to detect an error is to test the environment variable for the value ERROR. If FDATE output is redirected to a batch file, which is then CALLed to set an environment variable, the batch file will: * set the environment variable to ERROR, * ECHO the error message, and * pause. You can detect an error by testing errorlevel for the value 1 either before or after you CALL the batch file. You can detect an error by testing the environment variable for the value ERROR, AFTER you have CALLed the batch file. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EXAMPLE: rem use FDATE to check validity of year in parm %1 Fdate /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /ATT-TT-%1 /Occyy /P"Received year parm: " if errorlevel 1 echo Year parm [%1] is not valid. if errorlevel 1 goto endit EXAMPLE: rem use FDATE to verify %1, and GET to put it into %year% Fdate /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /ATT-TT-%1 /Occyy | GET ZE /V%year% >nul if (%year%)==(ERROR) echo Year parm [%1] is not valid. if (%year%)==(ERROR) goto endit EXAMPLE: rem use FDATE to verify %1, call a batch file to put it into %year% Fdate /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /ATT-TT-%1 /Occyy /P"@set year=">junktemp.bat call junktemp.bat del junktemp.bat if errorlevel 1 echo Year parm [%1] is not valid. if errorlevel 1 goto endit SYMBOL CONVENTIONS ================== The following symbols are used in specifying date formats: SYMBOL EXAMPLE MEANING ------ ------- ------------------------------------- cc 19 century yy 93 year mm 02 month zm 2 month without leading zero dd 08 day zd 8 day without leading zero mn February month name mn3 Feb month name, first 3 characters only dow Tuesday day of week dow3 Tue day of week, first 3 characters only dow# 3 day of week as a number (Sunday=1, Monday = 2, etc.) today is a "pseudodate" representing the current date t is an alias for the "today" pseudodate hh:mm 09:05 hours and minutes hhmm 0905 hours and minutes ss 09 seconds PSEUDODATES =========== t (or today) can be used with either /A or /B, e.g. /Atoday or /At. EXAMPLE rem Get the date that is 90 days from today FDATE /Fadd /N90 /Atoday /Omm-dd-ccyy FDATE /Fadd /N90 /At /Omm-dd-ccyy rem determine if this year is a leapyear FDATE /Ff /At /OLY tt when used in place of a 2-digit DD string, will cause Fdate to use today's day-of-the-month. Example: FDATE /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /A01-tt-1992 /Od1 tt when used in place of a 2-digit MM string, will cause Fdate to use today's month. Example: FDATE /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /Att-01-1992 /Od1 tt when used in place of a 2-digit YY string, will cause Fdate to use today's year (CCYY). Example: FDATE /Ff /Imm-dd-yy /A01-01-tt /Od1 Note that TT can NOT be used for only the YY part of a CCYY input year. The following, for example, is NOT valid: Example: FDATE /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /A01-01-19tt /Od1 tttt when used in place of a 4-digit CCYY string, will cause Fdate to use today's year (CCYY). Example: FDATE /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /A01-01-tttt /Od1 EXAMPLES: Show the first Monday in the second quarter of this year FDATE /Fw /Iccyymmdd /Atttt0301 /D2 /N1 /Od1 /P"First Monday in QTR#2: " Show the last Friday on/before the 15th of this month. FDATE /Fw /Iccyymmdd /Atttttt15 /D6 /N-1 /Od1 /P"Friday before the 15th: " INPUT FORMATS ============= NOTE If ALL input dates are specified using the "today" pseudodate, (i.e. /At, /Bt) then it is not necessary to supply an input format using /I. FORMAT EXAMPLES DISCUSSION ------ --------- ----------------------------- ccyymmdd 19922002 mm-dd-ccyy 02-20-1992 In an input format specification, the dash 02/20/1992 symbols represent ANY non-numeric symbol. 2-5-1992 Leading zeros need not be present. 2/5/1992 mm-dd-yy 02-20-92 February 2, 1992 [see below, **] JULIAN INPUT FORMATS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: * JJJ can actually be 1 - 4 digits * may include a prefix of a plus or minus ( + or - ) sign ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ccyyjjj 1992003 Third day of 1992, i.e. Jan 3, 1992 19923 Third day of 1992 tttt003 Third day of this year tttt3 Third day of this year yyjjj 92003 Third day of 1992 923 Third day of 1992 tt003 Third day of this year tt3 Third day of this year 01003 Third day of 2001 [see below, **] NOTE THAT FDATE WILL ACCEPT "JJJ" OF LESS THAN 1 & MORE THAN 366. ----------------------------------------------------------------- yyjjj tt1000 the 1000th day from beginning of this year tt0 last day of last year tt-1 next-to-last day of last year FDATE /Ff /Iccyyjjj /Od1 /A1992-1 produces... Monday December 30, 1991 FDATE /Ff /Iccyyjjj /Od1 /A19920 produces... Tuesday December 31, 1991 FDATE /Ff /Iccyyjjj /Od1 /A1992+1 produces... Wednesday January 1, 1992 FDATE /Ff /Iccyyjjj /Od1 /A1992366 produces... Thursday December 31, 1992 FDATE /Ff /Iccyyjjj /Od1 /A1992367 produces... Friday January 1, 1993 This feature allows limited date arithmetic with ordinary business Julian days. For example, 90 days from tt300 can be shown by: FDATE /Ff /Iyyjjj /Att390 FDATE'S CENTURY-ASSUMPTION ALGORITHM ** ==================================== If an input date is supplied in a format in which the year is specified without a century -- that is, as YY rather than CCYY -- then Fdate does not automatically use the current century. Instead, * if YY is greater than 20, then FDATE assumes CC = 19 * if YY is less than or equal 20, then FDATE assumes CC = 20 Examples: 21 becomes 1921 ... 99 becomes 1999 00 becomes 2000 01 becomes 2001 ... 20 becomes 2020 but then (again) 21 becomes 1921 To put it simply, FDATE makes what would be a reasonable assumption about the century for someone operating in the 1990's: it looks back to 1921 and forward to 2020. If both I and FDATE are still alive in the year 2000, I'll probably update FDATE's century-assumption algorithm to shift it forward several decades. OUTPUT FORMATS ============== FORMAT EXAMPLES DISCUSSION ------ --------- ----------------------------- dd-mn3-yy 08-Feb-92 CompuServe-style date ccyy 1993 ccyymm 199302 useful for triggering monthly processing ccyymmdd 19930208 useful for putting current date in filename yymmdd 908208 useful for putting current date in filename mmdd 0208 dd 08 zd 8 In the following formats, months precede days (American style) ------------------------------------------------------------------ mm/dd/ccyy 02/08/1993 mm-dd-ccyy 02-08-1993 mm.dd.ccyy 02.08.1993 British-style dates zm/zd/ccyy 2/8/1993 no leading zeros in day or month zm-zd-ccyy 2-8-1993 no leading zeros in day or month zm.zd.ccyy 2.8.1993 British-style dates mm/dd/yy 02/08/92 mm-dd-yy 02-08-92 mm.dd.yy 02.08.92 British-style dates zm/zd/yy 2/8/92 no leading zeros in day or month zm-zd-yy 2-8-92 no leading zeros in day or month zm.zd.yy 2.8.92 no leading zeros in day or month In the following formats, days precede months (European style) ------------------------------------------------------------------ dd/mm/ccyy 02/08/1993 dd-mm-ccyy 02-08-1993 dd.mm.ccyy 02.08.1993 British-style dates zd/zm/ccyy 2/8/1993 no leading zeros in day or month zd-zm-ccyy 2-8-1993 no leading zeros in day or month zd.zm.ccyy 2.8.1993 British-style dates dd/mm/yy 02/08/92 dd-mm-yy 02-08-92 dd.mm.yy 02.08.92 British-style dates zd/zm/yy 2/8/92 no leading zeros in day or month zd-zm-yy 2-8-92 no leading zeros in day or month zd.zm.yy 2.8.92 British-style dates ------------------------------------------------------------------ Day-of-the-week output formats ------------------------------------------------------------------ dow# 5 Sunday=1, Monday=2 .... Saturday=7. dow Thursday name of day of week Jeudi if /Lfr specified dow3 Thu first 3 characters of name of day of week Jeu if /Lfr specified mn February name of month Fevrier if /Lfr specified mn3 Feb first 3 characters of name of month Fev if /Lfr specified ------------------------------------------------------------------ LY 0 1 if year is a leapyear, otherwise 0. ------------------------------------ 365 + this number gives total number of days in the year. 28 + this number gives total number of days in February. ------------------------------------ d1 Saturday, February 5, 1992 le Samedi 5 Fevrier 1992 [/Lfr specified] t1 9:05 am 9:05 pm HH:MM 09:05 24-hour time, hours:minutes 21:05 HHMM 0905 2105 HH:MM:SS 21:05:30 24-hour time, hours:minutes:seconds HHMMSS 210530 full 9:05 pm on Saturday, February 5, 1992 9:05 pm le Samedi 5 Fevrier 1992 [/Lfr specified] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE that the following formats contain embedded spaces. Consequently they must be enclosed in double quotes. EXAMPLE: /O"mn zd, ccyy". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "zd mn ccyy" 5 February 1992 "zd mn, ccyy" 5 February, 1992 "mn3 dd ccyy" Feb 05 1992 "mn3 dd, ccyy" Feb 05, 1992 "mn zd, ccyy" February 5, 1992 "JULIAN" OUTPUT FORMATS ======================= FORMAT EXAMPLES DISCUSSION ------ --------- ----------------------------- julian 27 BUSINESS "Julian date" expressed as number of days since January 1 of the same year. NOTE: with this format leading zeros are suppressed. CCyyjjj 1992027 Jan 27, 1992 yyjjj 92027 " JJJ 027 " BUSINESS "Julian date" expressed as number of days since January 1 of the same year. NOTE: with these formats leading zeros are retained. day# 727198 TRUE "Julian date" expressed as number of days since January 1, 0001. minute# 33088 "Julian minutes": time expressed as number of minutes since midnight, January 1, 1990. second# 633088 "Julian seconds": time expressed as number of seconds since midnight, January 1, 1990. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Running FDATE with /O parameter for a "Julian time" produces a number based on the current time of day and the date in the /A parm. If, on January 10, 1992 at 2 pm, you run FDATE this way: FDATE /Ff /Atoday /Ominute# it will produce the Julian minute for January 10, 1992 at 2 pm. If, on January 10, 1992 at 2 pm, you run FDATE this way: FDATE /Ff /A01-15-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy /Ominute# it will produce the Julian minute for January 15, 1992 at 2 pm. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DATE FUNCTIONS ============== FUNCTION FDATE /Ffunc /Adate /Iformat /Oformat -------- ------------------------------------------- format this is a synonym for function "f" f returns /Adate in format specified by /Oformat Since /Aformat and /Oformat can be different, the FORMAT function is used to change a date from one format to another. Because of the wide variety of output formats, the FORMAT function can also be used to determine the day of week of the date, whether the date is in a normal or leap year, etc. EXAMPLES FDATE /Ff /A19920101 /Iccyymmdd /O"mn zd, ccyy" FDATE /Ff /Atoday /Od1 FDATE /Fformat /Atoday /Od1 FUNCTION FDATE /Ffunc /Nnumdays /Adate /Iformat /Oformat -------- ------------------------------------------- add Adds /Ndays to /Adate, produces date in /Oformat format sub Subtracts /Ndays from /Adate, produces date in /Oformat format EXAMPLES FDATE /Fadd /N90 /A01-01-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy /Od1 FDATE /Fsub /N90 /A01-01-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy /Od1 FDATE /Fadd /N90 /Atoday /Od1 FUNCTION FDATE /Ffunc /Adate /Bdate /Iformat -------- ------------------------------------------- comp compares the dates specified on the /A and /B parms. returns when LT /A is less than (earlier than) /B EQ /A is equal to (same as) /B GT /A is greater than (later than) /B dif Returns number of days between /Adate and /Bdate Order of the two dates is not significant. Note that for DIF, both dates must be in the SAME format, the input format specified in /Iformat. If the two dates are not in the same format, reformat one of the dates using the /Ff function and a utility like STRINGS or GET. EXAMPLES FDATE /Fdif /A01-01-1992 /B11-11-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy FDATE /Fdif /A11-11-1992 /B01-01-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy FDATE /Fdif /Atoday /B01-01-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy FUNCTION FDATE /Ffunc /Adate /Iformat /Oformat /Ddow# /Ndow-count -------- ----------------------------------------------------------- w W (weekday) function. This function accepts a date specification in parm /A and returns the date of the /Nth /Day-of-the-week before or after /Adate. For example: If /A specifies November 14, 1992 /D specifies the number for Thursday (i.e., 5) /N specifies a week count of 3 then /Fw returns the date of the third Thursday after November 14, 1992. (See full example, below) Note that /N may be negative. If, in the above example, /N is specified as -3, then Fdate returns the date of the third Thursday BEFORE November 14, 1992. If the date specified on the /A parms falls on the same day of the week as was specified on the /D parm, then that will be considered to be the first date meeting that day-of-week criterion. That is, If November 14, 1992 fell on a Thursday, and if /N was 1 or -1, then the output date would be the same as the input date, i.e. November 14, 1992. The acceptable values for /N (number of weeks) is in the range of 99..-99. A value of zero (i.e. /N0) is invalid. EXAMPLES find date of Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November) in 1992 FDATE /Fw /A11-01-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy /D5 /N4 /Od1 returns: Thursday November 26, 1992 find the beginning of the work-week (Monday, 2nd day of week) AFTER Thanksgiving, 1992 FDATE /Fw /A11-26-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy /D2 /N1 /Od1 find the beginning of the work-week (Monday, 2nd day of week) BEFORE Thanksgiving, 1992 FDATE /Fw /A11-26-1992 /Imm-dd-ccyy /D2 /N-1 /Od1 MATH FUNCTIONS ============== FUNCTION FDATE /Ffunc /Anum /Bnum -------- ------------------------------------------- #add returns the sum of the integers specified on the /A and /B parms. Can be used to calculate the "Julian" minute(second, date) in the future from a given "Julian" minute(second, date). #sub (not supported) no numeric subtraction operation (as such) is supported. Often, you will find that #dif will do what you want. #dif is the same as subtraction in which the smaller number is subtracted from the larger number; it will never return a negative number. If you really MUST have subtraction, which might return a negative result, you can add two numbers, one of which is a negative number. For example, to subtract 3 from 2: FDATE /F#add /A2 /B-3 [ returns: -1 ] #dif returns the difference between the integers specified on the /A and /B parms. Can be used to calculate the number of minutes(seconds, days) between two "Julian" minutes(seconds, dates). #comp compares the integers specified on the /A and /B parms. returns when LT /A is less than /B EQ /A is equal to /B GT /A is greater than /B PUTTING FDATE OUTPUT INTO AN ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE USING /V =========================================================== Starting with version 6.1, Fdate supports a /V (environment variable) parameter. A user can use /V to tell Fdate to put its output directly into an environment variable. (Fdate attempts to put output into an environment variable in the master, rather than the local, environment.) Note that due to the complexities of manipulating the environment, /V may not always work. If you encounter a situation in which it does not, you may be able to use one of the alternative techniques described in the next section. /Vevar tells Fdate to put output into an environmental variable whose name is "evar". For example: Fdate /Ff /Vdate1 will set the environment variable DATE1 to the current date. If you type SET at the DOS prompt, you should see something like: DATE1=Friday February 14, 1992 If you specify /V without an evar name, the evar name defaults to FDATE. Example : Fdate /Ff /V produces: FDATE=Friday February 14, 1992 If you do not use /V, Fdate output is written to standard output, that is, to the screen. PUTTING FDATE OUTPUT INTO AN ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE WITHOUT USING /V =================================================================== Manipulating the environment is an incredibly tricky business. There are questions of the local versus master environment, the version of DOS you are running, and the environment under which you are running (DOS, Windows, Carousel). In order to keep FDATE focussed on date-related issues, versions of Fdate prior to 6.1 did not attempt to put output directly into an environment variable. Instead, FDATE's output was written to standard output, that is, it was displayed on the screen. Output could then be redirected to a batch file, or piped to a utility (such as STRINGS or GET), that would put the output into an environment variable. Starting with version 6.1, Fdate supports a /V (environment variable) parameter. A user can use /V to tell Fdate to put its output directly into an environment variable. HOWEVER.... due to the complexities of environment manipulation, there may be circumstances where /V doesn't work. These include shelling to DOS, or running under Windows, Carousel, etc. In such cases, you will need to fall back on more basic methods. One way to put FDATE's output into an environment variable is to use the /P (prefix string) feature to create a DOS "SET" statement, redirect the output to a batch file, and CALL the batch file. Since CALL first appeared in DOS 3.3, you will need DOS 3.3 or greater to use this technique. FDATE /Ff /Atoday /O"mn zd, ccyy" /P"@SET FDATE=" >JUNKTEMP.BAT call JUNKTEMP.BAT del JUNKTEMP.BAT There are also shareware and public domain utilities that are written specifically to manipulate environment variables, and do that job very well. FDATE's output can be put into an environment variable by piping it to one of these utilities. When piping FDATE output to a utility, you can prevent the output from being ECHOed to the screen by redirecting the output to NUL. EXAMPLE: use STRINGS to put date into DATE1 environment variable FDATE /Ff /At /Od1 | STRINGS date1= ASK >NUL ----------------------------------------------------------------- I recommend Bob Stephan's GET and PC Magazine's STRINGS. As of February 14, 1992, the current version of GET is 2.5. On CompuServe, use IBMFF to look for GET*.ZIP (e.g. GET25.ZIP for version 2.5) in CIS:IBMSYS, or for GET.ZIP in ZNT:UTILFORUM, lib 16. GET is also available from the Public Software Library in Houston. As of February 14, 1992, the current version of STRINGS is 1.3. On CompuServe, look for STRING.ZIP in the PC Magazine Utilities Lib of ZNT:UTILFORUM. STRHYP.ZIP contains good hypertext documentation on STRINGS. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #1 Redirect FDATE output to a file, or to a callable batch file, or pipe it to STRINGS or GET to store it in an environment variable ======================================================================= rem display Fdate output on screen FDATE /Ff /At /Od1 /P"Today is " rem Redirect FDATE output to a file FDATE /Ff /At /Od1 /P"Today is " >FDATE.OUT rem Redirect FDATE output to a callable batch file FDATE /Ff /Atoday /O"mn zd, ccyy" /P"@SET DATE1=" >JUNKTEMP.BAT call JUNKTEMP.BAT del JUNKTEMP.BAT rem Pipe FDATE output to STRINGS to store it in DATE1 environment var FDATE /Ff /Atoday /O"mn zd, ccyy" |STRINGS date1= ASK >NUL rem Pipe FDATE output to GET to store it in DATE1 environment var FDATE /Ff /Atoday /O"mn zd, ccyy" |GET ZE /Vdate1 >NUL ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #2 Find the difference (in days) between two dates in different formats Use GET to put FDATE output into environment variables. ======================================================================= set date1=05-10-1992 rem reformat date literal into same format as date1 FDATE /Ff /Imm-dd-yy /A05-08-92 /Omm-dd-ccyy | GET ZE /Vdate2>NUL rem get difference between date1 and date2 FDATE /Fdif /Imm-dd-ccyy /A%date1% /B%date2%| GET ZE /vdiff>NUL echo The difference is %diff% days. ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #3 Schedule a program to run at a specified time in the future. Note that this involves a lot of disk activity because DOS re-reads the batch file from disk every time it does a GOTO LOOPTOP. If you do this, it is a good idea to run the batch file from a RAM DISK. ======================================================================= REM GET CURRENT JULIAN MINUTE AND PUT IN ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE RUNTIME FDATE /Ff /At /Ominute# |STRINGS RunTime= ASK >NUL REM ADD 120 MINUTES (2 HOURS) TO ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE RUNTIME FDATE /F#add /A%RunTime% /B120 |STRINGS RunTime= ASK >NUL REM LOOP UNTIL NOWTIME HAS REACHED RUNTIME :LoopTop FDATE /Ff /At /Ominute# |STRINGS NowTime= ASK >NUL FDATE /F#comp /A%NowTime% /B%RunTime% |STRINGS TimeComp= ASK >NUL if (%TimeComp%)==(LT) goto loopTOP :LoopEnd echo STARTING EXECUTION OF APPLICATION: [program name] ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #4 Rename file BACKUP.LOG to a name that contains today's date ======================================================================= FDATE /Ff /Atoday /Oyymmdd /P"@SET DATE1=" >JUNKTEMP.BAT call JUNKTEMP.BAT del JUNKTEMP.BAT ren BACKUP.LOG BK%DATE1%.LOG SET DATE1= ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #4b Use FDATE to rename a log file to a name that will be unique within a minute time-frame. This is a way to keep an historical record of a series of log files. Since the file will retain its original date/time stamp, you will still be able easily to tell when it was created. In this example, we use GET to put the FDATE output into environment variable TEMPVAR. ======================================================================= FDATE /FF /At /Ominute# | GET ZE /Vtempvar >nul REN online.log %tempvar%.log SET tempvar= ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #5 Find calendar date corresponding to Julian date 1992:045 ======================================================================= FDATE /Ff /A1992045 /Iccyyjjj /Od1 ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #6 Check to see if parameter %1 is a valid year (CCYY) ======================================================================= @echo off rem determine if value sent in through parameter %1 is a valid year Fdate /Ff /Imm-dd-ccyy /A01-01-%1 /Od1 >nul if errorlevel 1 echo Parm 1 was not a valid year: %1 if errorlevel 1 goto endit echo PUT YOUR BATCH PROCESSING HERE, USING YEAR VALUE OF: %1 :endit ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #7 Find the 4th Thursday in November (Thanksgiving) ======================================================================= Fdate /Fw /D5 /N4 /A11-01-%year% /Imm-dd-ccyy /Od1 /P"Thanksgiving: " ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #8 Show the number of the anniversary for some special event. ======================================================================= SEE HOLIDAYS.BAT ======================================================================= EXAMPLE #9 Run a program once a day, when you boot for the first time that day. ======================================================================= @echo off cls REM ------------------------------------------------------------------- REM Run daily processing once a day. Put this code in AUTOEXEC.BAT. REM This batch file requires DOS 3.3+, since it uses CALL. REM ------------------------------------------------------------------- if not exist LastRun.BAT goto RunNow REM LastRun.Bat will set env var LASTRUN to date AUTOEXEC was last run. call LastRun.BAT REM Compare today's date to date in LASTRUN Fdate /Fcomp /Imm-dd-ccyy /At /B%LastRun% /P"@set COMP=">junktemp.BAT call junktemp.BAT del junktemp.BAT IF (%COMP%)==(EQ) goto NoRun REM if user reset system clock, today's date may be less than LASTRUN IF (%COMP%)==(LT) goto NoRun rem Daily processing hasn't been run today. Run it. echo RUNNING ONCE A DAY PROCESSING: Job 1 echo RUNNING ONCE A DAY PROCESSING: Job 2 echo RUNNING ONCE A DAY PROCESSING: ............. etc. rem ------------------------------------------------------------------ rem Save today's date in a new version of LastRun.BAT rem Note that this will be executed only if daily processing runs to rem completion without hanging the machine or aborting the batch file. rem ------------------------------------------------------------------ Fdate /Ff /Omm-dd-ccyy /At /P"@set LastRun=">LastRun.BAT :NoRun set LastRun= set COMP= FDATE'S ALGORITHMS ================== FDATE IS DESIGNED FOR BUSINESS, NOT HISTORICAL, APPLICATIONS ============================================================ FDATE is intended for business applications, not historical ones. As far as FDATE is concerned, the calendar has followed the same pattern, unchanged, since January 1, 0001. ------------------------------------------------------------------- FDATE does not take into account historical changes in the calendar such as the glitch in English dates that occurred when Britain moved from the Julian to Gregorian calendar in the 18th century, or Russia made the same move in the early 20th century. ------------------------------------------------------------------- FDATE'S BASE DATE ================= Internally, date manipulations are based on translating a calendar date into an "absolute" or "TRUE Julian" date: a date expressed as the number of days from some day in the distant past. FDATE's base date is January 1, 0001 (i.e. day 1 of month 1 of year 1) FDATE's absolute date for January 1, 0001 is 1. FDATE's absolute date for January 1, 1992 is 727198. FDATE'S LEAP YEAR ALGORITHM =========================== Every year evenly divisible by 4 IS a leap year EXCEPT THAT Every year evenly divisible by 100 IS NOT a leap year EXCEPT THAT Every year evenly divisible by 400 IS a leap year . Using this algorithm 1983 is not a leap year 1984 is a leap year 1900 is not a leap year 2000 is a leap year See "A Machine Algorithm for Processing Calendar Dates", by Henry F. Fliegel (Georgetown University Observatory) and Thomas C. Van Flandern (U.S. Naval Observatory) COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM, Volume 11, Number 10, October 1968 There is supposedly a new adjustment to the leapyear algorithm, which specifies the additional exception: EXCEPT THAT Every year evenly divisible by 4000 IS a leap year See "Bit By Bit" column, COMPUTER LANGUAGE, November 1989, p. 148. This adjustment is not part of FDATE's leapyear algorithm. Unless your application is working with dates 2,000 years in the future, the lack of this exception will be irrelevant for you. DEMONSTRATION BATCH FILES ========================= FDATE ships with a number of demonstration batch files. These are sample applications that illustrate some of the ways that FDATE might be used to build applications. They can be studied for ideas for ways of using FDATE. They can also be used "as is", or copied and customized to build applications that meet your own special needs. DEMONSTRATION BATCH FILE: HOLIDAYS.BAT ====================================== HOLIDAYS without any parameters displays events in current year. HOLIDAYS with a year parameter displays events in that year. EXAMPLE: HOLIDAYS displays events in current year EXAMPLE: HOLIDAYS 1999 displays events in year 1999. As the holidays are displayed, you can dump each screen display to a printer by pressing SHIFT+PRINTSCREEN. DEMONSTRATION BATCH FILE: ALARM =============================== ALARM.BAT is like a simple alarm clock for your PC. ALARM.BAT waits until a specified time, then triggers an alarm: it beeps and displays a message. It continues until someone presses CONTROL-BREAK. If you enter just "ALARM" at the DOS prompt, without any parameters, ALARM displays a HELP screen that shows how to use it. ALARM uses ANSI control codes to control screen color and cursor placement, so it requires ANSI.SYS in order to work properly. If you are not using ANSI.SYS, it will display some garbage characters on your screen unless you modify the batch file to remove the ANSI control codes. USAGE : ALARM shows current time in hhmm format USAGE : ALARM hhmm [msg] waits until hhmm, then sounds an alarm EXAMPLE : ALARM 0930 [sounds alarm at 9:30 am] EXAMPLE : ALARM 930 Staff meeting [sounds alarm at 9:30 am] EXAMPLE : ALARM 1800 [sounds alarm at 6:00 pm] For midnight, specify 0000 or 2400 for hhmm. EXAMPLE : ALARM 2400 START MIDNIGHT BATCH RUN The first thing that ALARM.BAT does is to change to the M: drive. M: is presumed to be a RAM disk. Before you can use ALARM.BAT, you should use your favorite text editor to change the RAM disk designation to point to your own RAM disk. It is possible to run ALARM.BAT from a normal hard disk or floppy, but because ALARM.BAT does a LOT of disk activity, it is strongly recommended that you make your current directory a RAM disk before running it. To prevent repeated disk accesses to find the FDATE program, you should also have FDATE on the RAM disk, or be using a cache. USING ALARM TO CREATE RUN-IT ============================ You can copy ALARM.BAT to another batch file (say, RUN-IT.BAT) and modify it so that rather than sounding an alarm it triggers other activiites instead: runs a program or programs, or chains to another batch file, for example. To create a generalized RUN-IT.BAT, you could use the words of the message to pass in the name of a batch file that you want to be run at a certain time, along with its parameters. Make the triggered activity this: rem Note that earlier SHIFT has moved batch file name to parm 1. rem run %1 batch file. %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 Then entering this at the DOS prompt: RUN-IT 0001 BACKUP.BAT C: D: E: would cause RUN-IT to wait until 1 minute past midnight, then run a batch file called BACKUP.BAT to backup drives C:, D:, and E:. DEMONSTRATION BATCH FILE: TIC.BAT ================================= TIC.BAT is a sample application that uses FDATE to create a "tickler file" batch file. The default name for the file is C:\TICKLER.BAT. In order to use TIC on a regular basis, you should: * Use your favorite text editor to modify TIC.BAT so that it will use your favorite text editor in the EDIT function. (TIC.BAT ships with the editor set to SPFPC). * If you wish, use your favorite text editor to modify the first few lines of TIC.BAT, so the "SET TicBAT=" statement sets TicBAT to a different file name for the tickler batch file. Note that you must specify the full filename, including path and extension. * Put TIC.BAT in a directory that is in your PATH. * add the following lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: CLS rem show today's appointments call TIC T echo. rem show tomorrow's appointments [note space betwee T and +1] call TIC T +1 echo. pause This will cause the tickler batch file to be run when you boot your computer, showing you your scheduled appointments. HELP ==== Running TIC without any parms will cause it to display a HELP screen. EXAMPLE: tic ADDING A NEW TICKLE (SINGLE DATES) ================================== To add a new SINGLE DATE tickle, invoke TIC. The first parm must be the date of the desired tickle, in the format mm/dd/yy. (You may use the pseudodate TT for the current month or year, if you wish.) This parm must be followed by a description of the appointment. * If no description is entered, TIC interprets the date in parm 1 as a request to display the tickles for that date. NOTE: DOS batch files strip commas out of their input parameters, so any commas in your description will be lost. EXAMPLE: tic 5/5/92 Cinco de Mayo party w/ Susan: El Charro @ 6pm EXAMPLE: tic 5/5/tt Cinco de Mayo party w/ Susan: El Charro @ 6pm ADDING A NEW TICKLE (REGULAR WEEKLY APPOINTMENTS) ================================================= To add a new REGULAR APPOINTMENT tickle, invoke TIC. The first two parms must be the string "dow" (or "DOW") and the day-of-the-week number of the day of the week (e.g. 2 for Monday). These parms should be followed by a description of the appointment. EXAMPLE: tic dow 2 Regular Monday morning staff meeting @ 8:30 am EXAMPLE: TIC DOW 6 STANDING TENNIS DATE WITH JANICE AT 6:30 CHECKING YOUR TICKLES ===================== You can check your tickler file appointments for a particular day at any time by invoking TIC with only a date parm or the pseudodate T or TODAY. EXAMPLE: tic t displays appointments for today EXAMPLE: tic today displays appointments for today EXAMPLE: tic 5/5/92 displays appointments for May 5, 1992 EXAMPLE: tic 5/5/tt displays appointments for May 5 of this year EXAMPLE: tic tt/5/tt displays appointments for the 5th of this month You can check your tickler file appointments for a date from one to seven days in the future by invoking TIC with two parms: T (for today) followed by a number of +1 through +7. Unsigned numbers are treated as if they have a plus sign. Negative numbers will show appointments for days in the past. EXAMPLE: tic t displays appointments for today EXAMPLE: tic t 1 displays appointments for tomorrow EXAMPLE: tic t +1 displays appointments for tomorrow EXAMPLE: tic t +7 displays appointments for a week from today EXAMPLE: tic t -1 displays appointments for yesterday Note that the space between the first parm "T" and the second, number parm, is required: EXAMPLE: tic t+2 does not recognise "t+2" as "t +2". Displays appointments for TODAY. If the tickler batch file does not exist, nothing will be displayed. REMOVING DEAD TICKLES ===================== After a while the tickler batch file will become very long, filled with "dead tickles". You can edit it with a text editor to remove the dead tickles: EXAMPLE: tic edit EXAMPLE: TIC ED or simply delete it and let TIC create a new one the next time you use TIC to add a tickle. USE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FDATE ============================= FDATE is freeware, or what is known as "zero-cost shareware". FDATE is not what is technically called "public domain" software because the author retains the copyright. FDATE can, however, be copied, used, and distributed freely as long as both FDATE.EXE and its associated doc file (FDATE.DOC) and its demonstration batch files (FDATEX.BAT, HOLIDAYS.BAT, TIC.BAT, ALARM.BAT) are not altered and are distributed together. FDATE can be included in shareware packages as long as both FDATE and its related files are included in the shareware package. If you have received FDATE as part of some larger shareware package, please be aware that you may freely use, copy, and distribute FDATE without paying a fee for, or registering, the larger package. The author explicitly disavows any claim whatsoever about the correctness or functionality of FDATE, its documentation, and its demonstration batch files, and disclaims liability for anything and everything bad that might happen in connection with, before, during, or after using it. I have tried to make FDATE work right, but everybody makes mistakes, so you use FDATE at your own risk. I don't know if people will find FDATE useful, and I'd like to find out. If you find FDATE useful and use it on a regular basis, I'd appreciate it if you would drop me a short note via US mail or CompuServe, telling me about how you are using FDATE. If you need other input/output formats, or if you need a different leapyear algorithm, please contact the author. UPDATES AND CURRENT VERSION OF FDATE ==================================== You will always be able to find the most recent version of FDATE on CompuServe. The filename will be FDATE.ZIP, and it will be available in one of the libraries in the CIS:IBMSYS forum and one of the libraries in the ZNT:UTILFORUM forum. You can find it by using cross-library searching, looking for the filename FDATE.ZIP or the keyword FDATE. Feel free to post copies of FDATE.ZIP on any BBS that you wish, but please do not upload it to any CompuServe library. As long as I am the only one putting copies of FDATE onto CompuServe, we can keep confusion over versions to a minimum. The current distribution package (FDATE.ZIP) contains the following: FDATE.EXE [the FDATE program] FDATE.DOC [this file, documentation for FDATE] FDATEX.BAT [demonstration batch files] HOLIDAYS.BAT TIC.BAT FDATE REVISION HISTORY ====================== Letters appended to version numbers indicate modifications to the doc files, without any modification to the FDATE.EXE software. Asterisks (*) indicate most important changes in the new version. 1.1 Oct 01, 1991 First version of FDATE 3.0a Dec 27, 1991 * =============== MAJOR BUG FIX ============================== * Fixed bug in TRUEDATE date arithmetic routine that caused * incorrect dates to be returned for the last 2 or 3 days of * some months. 3.1a Dec 28, 1991 Fixed bug: error messages were ignoring the /P parm 4.2b Jan 06, 1992 In HOLIDAYS.BAT: Fixed bug in algorithm for Ash Wednesday Corrected algorithm for Advent (thanks to L. Schliesser) 4.4b Jan 22, 1992 In TIC.BAT: Fixed ability to list by date, which had been messed up when adding ability to accept +1, etc. as parms 4.6a Jan 27, 1992 Fixed problem that prevented output from being redirected in version 4.5 5.1a Feb 09, 1992 * Added julian INPUT formats yyjjj and CCyyjjj Added documentation on Fdate's century-assumption algorithm 5.2a Feb 10, 1992 Relaxed the requirement that dates in JJJ must be zero-filled on the left to occupy all 3 digits. JJJ can now be as little as 1 character long, and as many as 4 characters. 5.3a Feb 13, 1992 Replaced "eng" language parameter with "us", in case there might be a need to distinguish American-style dates from British-style dates in the future. 6.1a Feb 14, 1992 *** MAJOR ENHANCEMENT *** * Added /V parm, which allows a user to have Fdate itself set an environment variable, rather than setting Evar by piping or redirecting Fdate's standard output. Added output formats MN (monthname) and MN3 Added demo batch file DO-ONCE.BAT to fdate distribution ZIP file Modification log was getting very long, so deleted all docs on modifications before version 5.0 except for documentation of bug fixes.