Need help with program

[Clay Clear]

I have written a couple of BBS utilities, one that's TriBBS 10.0+
specific, and one that's generic using the 52-line DOOR.SYS drop
file. Both programs use date conversion/manipulation using the
function Date2Num%(A$) found in QuikPak Pro. My problem is:

both TriBBS 10.0+ & the DOOR.SYS drop file use the "MM/DD/YY"
format for birthdays. The QPP function will work with the dates
01/01/1900 to 11/17/2065. However, I can't make use of that
range because the birthdate strings only contain the last two
digits of the year.

Does anybody have an idea for an algorithm I can use to make it
able to distinguish between which centuries the birthdates lie
in? I can't think of anything, as I don't believe it's logically
possible. But, hopefully, somebody can prove me wrong.

[Phil Tippit]

Clay,

If your program is looking for actual birthdays of users of the
BBS, then the problem can be solved very simply. But if the
dates being input are historical type dates out of the range of
01/01/1900 and 11/17/2065 you are right, there is no way to
calculate the correct date.

But if the dates being entered are actual birthdays of current
users, you can do the following.

First, you probably don't have anyone less than a year old
on your BBS. Second you probably don't have anyone 98 years
old on your BBS. So you need to set your lower limit at
01/01/1901 and your upper limit to 12/31/2000. As the actual
date changes increment these values by that date.

First have your program check for the current date whereby
you can change the lower and upper ranges for setting the
correct century.

If actual date is 01/01/2001 then the lower limit would be
12/31/1902 and the upper would be 01/01/2001. If you have
a julian date routine this would be very easy to code.

If the right two characters of the date is 02 to 99 then
the date is 19xx. If the date is 00 to 01 the date is 20xx.

Phil


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[This message has been edited by Phil Tippit (edited November 30, 2000).]

[Clay Clear]

Thanks, Phil. Those are the steps I've already taken. I'm just
VERY tired because I've been up all night messing with the two
programs - that's why I bothered to ask for help on something
that is logically impossible. I was grasping at straws.

Sorry to trouble you, and MANY thanks for your prompt reply!


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