We start by making a new file called “m_date.per” to build our screen form:

DATABASE FORMONLY

SCREEN
{
[mx1 ] [date ]
[date1 ]
[date2 ]
[date3 ]
}

ATTRIBUTES

LABEL mx1 = FORMONLY.text_dateedit;

DateEdit date = FORMONLY.dateedit TYPE DATE, REQUIRED, NOT NULL, COLOR=BLUE, FORMAT=”yyyy/mm/dd”;

DateEdit date1 = FORMONLY.dateedit1, NOENTRY, NOT NULL;
DateEdit date2 = FORMONLY.dateedit2, NOENTRY, DEFAULT=”01.09.1990″;
DateEdit date3 = FORMONLY.dateedit3, HIDDEN;

Compile the screen form with “fcompile -xml m_date.per” and start writing our simple example program “m_date.4gl” for the test:

MAIN

DEFINE text_dateedit CHAR(50)
DEFINE dateedit DATE

CLOSE WINDOW screen
CALL ui.Interface.loadActionDefaults(”default”)
CALL ui.Interface.loadStyles(”default”)

OPEN WINDOW w_1 WITH FORM “m_date”
CALL ui.Interface.settext(”DateEdit Example”)

LET text_dateedit = “Dateedit: ”
DISPLAY BY NAME text_dateedit,
                           dateedit
           ATTRIBUTES(RED)

MENU “Navigation”
      COMMAND “Edit”
            CALL init_date()
      COMMAND “Exit”
            EXIT MENU
END MENU

END MAIN

FUNCTION init_date()
DEFINE dateedit DATE
DEFINE dateedit1 DATE
DEFINE dateedit2 DATE

OPTIONS INPUT WRAP

INPUT BY NAME dateedit
                               dateedit1,
                               dateedit2

END FUNCTION

Compile this example with “4glpc m_date.4gl -o date.4ae”
Our Enviroment variable “DBDATE” has the FORMAT: “DMY4.”.

TheD = Day M = Month Y4 = Year and the point at the end of the line is our seperator like: “13.03.1988″.

Our screen form will now look like this:

In the next Step, we are going to change the FORMAT to:

DateEdit date = FORMONLY.dateedit TYPE DATE, FORMAT=”yyyy/mm/dd”;

If you want to see the correct FORMAT you must change the enviroment variable to: “export DBDATE=Y4MD/”

If you want to see the current eviroment variable use: “echo $DBDATE” in the terminal. We have now changed the enviroment variable and the screen form. If you want to see the following result then recompile the .per file withh “fcompile -xml m_date.per” and run the program again.

Now we have finished to change the DateEdit format