Jump to content

Age calculation


This topic is 5698 days old. Please don't post here. Open a new topic instead.

Recommended Posts

The Gregorian calendar has dates starting at January 1, 0001. With negative numbers, it has dates for any day since the beginning of time till doomsday. The mere fact that these dates were not used before the calendar was introduced does not invalidate them.

Certainly, even with the Julian calendar, no Greek ever referred to the current year as 356 B.C., for example. So if you admit to BC dates in principle, you should not object to extending Gregorian dates backwards as well.

Call it proleptic, if you will - it's still the same calendar. IMHO, the term "proleptic" is important only in the context of discussing historical events that are traditionally associated with their Julian dates. However, it IS important to emphasize which calendar is being used, when there is room for ambiguity.

BTW, the Gregorian calendar has no year 0. The ISO 8601 calendar does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't mean to say you can't extend the calendar backwards. You can do whatever you like with it, but then, the result of your efforts isn't the gregorian calendar anymore. In fact, that's how the gregorian calendar came to be: it was a modification of the Julian calendar.

The "proleptic gregorian calendar" is the actual name for the backward extension of the gregorian calendar to dates prior to it's first date; it is almost never used. You were right: the normalized, "astronomical gregorian calendar" is the modified gregorian calendar with 0AD -- I let myself get carried away and assumed the proleptic gregorian calendar was normalized.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't mean to say you can't extend the calendar backwards. You can do whatever you like with it, but then, the result of your efforts isn't the gregorian calendar anymore. In fact, that's how the gregorian calendar came to be: it was a modification of the Julian calendar.

The "proleptic gregorian calendar" is the actual name for the backward extension of the gregorian calendar to dates prior to it's first date; it is almost never used. You were right: the normalized, "astronomical gregorian calendar" is the modified gregorian calendar with 0AD -- I let myself get carried away and assumed the proleptic gregorian calendar was normalized.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't mean to say you can't extend the calendar backwards. You can do whatever you like with it, but then, the result of your efforts isn't the gregorian calendar anymore. In fact, that's how the gregorian calendar came to be: it was a modification of the Julian calendar.

The "proleptic gregorian calendar" is the actual name for the backward extension of the gregorian calendar to dates prior to it's first date; it is almost never used. You were right: the normalized, "astronomical gregorian calendar" is the modified gregorian calendar with 0AD -- I let myself get carried away and assumed the proleptic gregorian calendar was normalized.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Newbies

Hi, I'm just starting to learn how to manipulate and format databases and in doing so I'm trying to get an Age calculation but in days. Reading through what everyone has said I was able to use Ray's calculation to find the correct age in years, however I don't really know how to get it to give me the age in days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If your resultant calculation field is a number, it will automatically display the number of days. To FM, dates ARE numbers. FM only displays date formats for us because it knows we humans can't add quickly enough to interpret 38443 and know what date it means. wink.gif

Try this:

DateFrom (date)

DateTo (date)

Create a number calculation with DateTo - DateFrom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you mean age in days, or age in years and days?

Age in days is simply Date2 - Date1. Format the calculation to result in number.

For age in years and days, you need to precalculate the previous birthday (which might be in this year, or the previous one), and subtract it from today. Format the result as text, e.g. y & " years and " & d & " days"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
  • 10 months later...

This topic is 5698 days old. Please don't post here. Open a new topic instead.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.