SET DATE
 Set the date format for input and display
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 Syntax

     SET DATE FORMAT [TO] <cDateFormat>
     SET DATE [TO] AMERICAN | ansi | British | French
        | German | Italian | Japan | USA

 Arguments

     <cDateFormat> is a character expression that directly specifies the
     date format when the FORMAT clause is specified.  <cDateFormat> must
     evaluate to a string of 12 or fewer characters.

     When specified, <cDateFormat> is analyzed to determine the proper
     placement and number of digits for the day, month, and year.  The
     position of the day, month, and year digits is determined by scanning
     the string for one or more occurrences of the letters d, m, and y,
     respectively.  Other characters in the string are copied verbatim into
     displayed date values.

     When FORMAT is not used, one of several keywords describes the date
     format.  The following table shows the format for each keyword setting:

     SET DATE Formats
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     SETting   Format
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     AMERICAN  mm/dd/yy
     ANSI      yy.mm.dd
     BRITISH   dd/mm/yy
     FRENCH    dd/mm/yy
     GERMAN    dd.mm.yy
     ITALIAN   dd-mm-yy
     JAPAN     yy/mm/dd
     USA       mm-dd-yy
     ------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Description

     SET DATE is an environment command that sets the display format for date
     values.  SET DATE is a global setting that affects the behavior of dates
     throughout a program, allowing you to control date formatting in a way
     that facilitates porting applications to foreign countries.

 Examples

     .  In this example the FORMAT clause directly specifies the date
        format:

        SET DATE FORMAT "yyyy:mm:dd"

     .  This example configures the date setting at runtime by passing
        a DOS environment variable to the program, retrieving its value with
        GETENV(), and setting DATE with the retrieved value:

        C>SET CLIP_DATE=dd/mm/yy

        In the configuration section of the application program, the date
        format is set like this:

        FUNCTION AppConfig
           SET DATE FORMAT TO GETENV("CLIP_DATE")
           RETURN NIL

 Files   Library is CLIPPER.LIB.

See Also: CTOD() DATE() DTOC() DTOS() SET CENTURY SET EPOCH