Old dates to FM7 format

[Slats Highlander]

Hi all

Seems like this is a simple problem but I'm not sure how to solve it. I have a file which was at one time a FM5 file its dates were formatted 2004 01 01. Now the file has been updated to FM7 where dates are formatted 2004/01/01. The problem is when I search for records in a particular range e.g. <2004/01/01 only the records that match this format will come up in searches.

Is there a way to update all of these old records to a format that will be recognizable by FM7?

[Vaughan]

Dates are stored internally as the number of days since 1 January 0001. How dates are required to be entered depends on the languare setting in your OS. How they are *displayed* depends on the field formatting on each layout.

If you are having problems with date entry format, make sure your computer's languare setting is coredct, the use the Save a Copy As command to save a copy of the file. This new file shuld have the date formats of the computer it was saved on.

[Slats Highlander]

Thanks for the post. As far as OS I am a windows XP pro user. I'm not sure you understand the problem I am having. I tried to save a copy but the dates were exactly the same in that version.

Let me describe the problem differently:

I have a date feild that has the birthdates of clients. The old records I have the dates were entered with spaces like: 2004 01 01. There are about 1400 records with dates like this.

When I upgraded to FM7 dates are entered like this:

2004/01/01 with back slashes.

When I search for records by dates only the records with backslashes are recognized.

What I am looking for is a way to change all the old records so that their date fields are the same format as the new ones.

Make sense?

[RalphL]

Work with a copy of the database. On the date field use a replace by calculation subsitituting "/" for " ".

[Vaughan]

In the Define Fields dialog, is the birthdate field specified as "date" or "text". It sounds to me as though it is a text field, which is no good.

Ralph's advice is good: make backup copies of the database and work of those.

[Slats Highlander]

Thanks Ralph. That worked very well. FM ran through all the files and fixed all the dates. I tried it on a copy (great advice) and it chugged away. Then it worked in my real database. If others are trying this they should be sure to have the right field selected and to select the one field option or all the spaces in all your fields will be replaced.

Thanks also to Vaughan for your advice.