The date and time functions belong partly to the string functions, partly to the arithmetic functions and partly to the conversion functions so that they are described here in a separate chapter.
With the functions DATE and TIME the day's date and the current time of day can be represented in a chosen format or in the format specified by the SET parameters:
It is also possible to convert a given date or time into another format. The input and output formats for date or time are described by a mask.
If the description for the input or output format is missing, the entry from the SET parameters is used.
Instead of a self-defined format, the following predefined masks can also be used:
ISO YYYY-MM-DD or HH.MM.SS
USA MM/DD/YYYY or HH:MM AM ( PM )
EUROPE DD.MM.YYYY or HH.MM.SS
JIS YYYY-MM-DD or HH:MM:SS
INTERNAL YYYYMMDD or HHHHMMSS
Apart from that there are functions that enable date and time arithmetic. The date must always be specified in the format 'YYYYMMDD' and the time in the format 'HHHHMMSS'.
Syntax:
