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Dates
Unlike some other languages, QBasic has no date type variables. This makes creating calandars or manipulating dates very difficult. The functions on this page will, hopefully, make these calculations easier.
One of the most common functions is to find the day of the week for a given date. This is quite a simple operation.
For any date in January or February add 12 to the month and subtract 1 from the year
Add 1 to the month and multiply by 2.61. Drop the fraction (not round) afterwards
Add the Day, Month and the last two digits of the year
Add a quarter of the last two digits of the year (truncated not rounded)
Add the following factors for the year :-
If 18th century dates add 2
If 19th century dates add 0
If 20th century dates add 6
If 21st century dates add 4
The day of the week is the modulus of the figure produced divided by 7
The following program, weekday.bas, demonstrates the above steps.
'WeekDay.bas Ray Thomas September 2000 DIM UserDate AS STRING DIM Day AS INTEGER DIM Month AS LONG DIM Year AS LONG DIM NewYear AS STRING DIM DMY AS INTEGER DIM Century AS INTEGER DIM Weekday AS STRING DIM TxtDay(7) AS STRING DIM TxtMonth(12) AS STRING DIM Suffix AS STRING DATA Sunday,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday DATA January,February,March,April,May,June,July DATA August,September,October,November,December FOR Count = 0 TO 6 READ TxtDay(Count) NEXT Count FOR Count = 0 TO 11 READ TxtMonth(Count) NEXT Count DO CLS LOCATE 10, 28 PRINT "Please type the date" LOCATE 12, 20 PRINT "This must be in the format DD MM YYYY" LOCATE 15, 33 LINE INPUT ; UserDate$ IF LEN(UserDate$) = 0 THEN END LOOP UNTIL LEN(UserDate$) = 10 '*** Split out the day, month and year *** Day = VAL(LEFT$(UserDate$, 2)) Month = VAL(MID$(UserDate$, 4, 2)) Year = VAL(RIGHT$(UserDate$, 4)) '*** start the print out Suffix$ = "th" IF Day MOD 10 = 1 THEN Suffix$ = "st" IF Day MOD 10 = 2 THEN Suffix$ = "nd" IF Day MOD 10 = 3 THEN Suffix$ = "rd" IF Day > 10 AND Day < 14 THEN Suffix = "th" LOCATE 18, 21 PRINT RTRIM$(STR$(Day)); LTRIM$(Suffix$); " of "; TxtMonth$(Month - 1); Year; "is a "; '*** For any date in Jan or Feb add 12 to the month and '*** subtract 1 from the year IF Month < 3 THEN Month = Month + 12 Year = Year - 1 END IF '*** Add 1 to the month and multiply by 2.61 '*** Drop the fraction (not round) afterwards Month = Month + 1 Month = FIX(Month * 2.61) '*** Add Day, Month and the last two digits of the year NewYear$ = LTRIM$(STR$(Year)) Year = VAL(RIGHT$(NewYear$, 2)) DMY = Day + Month + Year Century = VAL(LEFT$(NewYear$, 2)) '*** Add a quarter of the last two digits of the year '*** (truncated not rounded) Year = FIX(Year / 4) DMY = DMY + Year '*** Add the following factors for the year IF Century = 18 THEN Century = 2 IF Century = 19 THEN Century = 0 IF Century = 20 THEN Century = 6 IF Century = 21 THEN Century = 4 DMY = DMY + Century '*** The day of the week is the modulus of DMY divided by 7 DMY = DMY MOD 7 PRINT TxtDay(DMY) END
The program also demonstrates how to calculate the day suffix, this is done in the lines
Suffix$ = "th"
IF Day MOD 10 = 1 THEN Suffix$ = "st"
IF Day MOD 10 = 2 THEN Suffix$ = "nd"
IF Day MOD 10 = 3 THEN Suffix$ = "rd"
IF Day > 10 AND Day < 14 THEN Suffix = "th"
The obvious thing to do when using date calculations is to create a calandar. This is demonstrated in the next program, calandar.bas
Screenshot of Calandar.bas
The program uses the steps used in weekday.bas to calculate the first day of the month. The majority of the program is actually just validating and extracting the various elements of the date, day, month and year from the user input. Actually drawing the calandar, admittedly very crudely, is done in only a score or so of lines.
DECLARE SUB InErr () DECLARE SUB GetCmmnd () DECLARE SUB DrawCal () DECLARE SUB GetDay () DECLARE SUB GetDate () 'Calandar.bas Ray Thomas September 2000 DIM SHARED Month AS LONG DIM SHARED Year AS LONG DIM SHARED DMY AS INTEGER DIM SHARED WeekDay(8) AS STRING DIM SHARED CalMonth(12) AS STRING DIM SHARED CalYear AS STRING DIM SHARED CurMonth AS STRING DIM SHARED IntMonth AS INTEGER DIM SHARED IntYear AS INTEGER DIM SHARED MonthDays(12) AS INTEGER DIM SHARED Cmmnd AS STRING DIM SHARED UserDate AS STRING DIM SHARED InError AS INTEGER DATA Sunday,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday DATA January,February,March,April,May,June,July DATA August,September,October,November,December '*** Fill the Weekday and Month arrays FOR Count = 0 TO 7 READ WeekDay$(Count) NEXT Count FOR Count = 0 TO 11 READ CalMonth$(Count) NEXT Count CLS LOCATE 6, 15 PRINT "Please type the month and year you want displayed" LOCATE 8, 20 PRINT "The month can be numeric, ie 3 for March" LOCATE 9, 13 PRINT "or at least the first three letters ie Mar for March." LOCATE 11, 23 PRINT "The year may be in the format YYYY" LOCATE 12, 9 PRINT "or YY, in which case it is assumed that it is in this century" LOCATE 13, 5 PRINT "or may be omitted, in which case it is assumed this year is required." LOCATE 15, 21 PRINT "Just press Enter for the current month." LOCATE 22, 5 PRINT "I've not checked all the possibilities of this program but it should" LOCATE 23, 10 PRINT "at least be accurate between January 1800 and December 2100" DO InError = 0 GetDate 'Get the month and year LOOP UNTIL InError = 0 DO CurMonth$ = CalMonth(Month - 1) + " " + STR$(Year) IntMonth = Month IntYear = Year GetDay 'Get the day of the first of the month DrawCal 'Draw the calendar GetCmmnd 'Get user commands LOOP UNTIL Cmmnd$ = CHR$(27) END SUB DrawCal '*** Draw the calendar SCREEN 11 CLS LOCATE 2, 40 - (LEN(CurMonth$) / 2) PRINT CurMonth$ XPosn = 2 FOR Count = 1 TO 7 LOCATE 4, XPosn PRINT WeekDay$(Count) XPosn = XPosn + 11.5 NEXT Count LINE (0, 40)-(640, 40) XPosn = 92 YPosn = 70 DO LINE (XPosn, 40)-(XPosn, 480) XPosn = XPosn + 92 LINE (0, YPosn)-(640, YPosn) YPosn = YPosn + 65 LOOP UNTIL XPosn > 640 IF DMY = 0 THEN DMY = 7 XPosn = 8 + ((DMY - 1) * 11.5) YPosn = 6 '*** Calculate how many days in the month LastDay = 31 IF INSTR("AprJunSepNov", LEFT$(CurMonth, 3)) THEN LastDay = 30 IF LEFT$(CurMonth$, 3) = "Feb" THEN LastDay = 28 IF IntYear MOD 100 <> 0 AND IntYear MOD 4 = 0 THEN LastDay = 29 IF IntYear = 2000 THEN LastDay = 29 END IF FOR Count = 1 TO LastDay LOCATE YPosn, XPosn PRINT Count XPosn = XPosn + 11.5 IF XPosn > 80 THEN YPosn = YPosn + 4 XPosn = 8 END IF NEXT Count END SUB SUB GetCmmnd LOCATE 30, 4 PRINT "Left = Last Month "; PRINT "Right = Next Month "; PRINT "Up = Next Year "; PRINT "Down = Last Year"; DO Cmmnd$ = INKEY$ LOOP UNTIL Cmmnd$ <> "" IF LEN(Cmmnd$) = 2 THEN Cmmnd$ = RIGHT$(Cmmnd$, 1) SELECT CASE Cmmnd$ CASE "2", CHR$(80) Year = IntYear - 1 Month = IntMonth CASE "4", CHR$(75) Month = IntMonth - 1 Year = IntYear IF Month = 0 THEN Month = 12 Year = Year - 1 END IF CASE "6", CHR$(77) Month = IntMonth + 1 Year = IntYear IF Month = 13 THEN Month = 1 Year = Year + 1 END IF CASE "8", CHR$(72) Year = IntYear + 1 Month = IntMonth CASE ELSE Year = IntYear Month = IntMonth END SELECT UserDate$ = LTRIM$(STR$(Month)) + " " + LTRIM$(RTRIM$(STR$(Year))) END SUB SUB GetDate DIM Num AS INTEGER LOCATE 17, 30 LINE INPUT ; UserDate$ '*** Get the month and year IF UserDate$ = "" THEN UserDate$ = LEFT$(DATE$, 2) Num = INSTR(UserDate$, " ") IF Num > 0 THEN StrMonth$ = UCASE$(LEFT$(UserDate$, Num)) ELSE StrMonth$ = UCASE$(UserDate$) END IF StrMonth$ = LEFT$(StrMonth$, 3) IF Num > 0 THEN Year = VAL(RIGHT$(UserDate$, LEN(UserDate$) - Num)) END IF AddYear = VAL(RIGHT$(DATE$, 4)) IF Year < 100 THEN Year = Year + AddYear Num = INSTR("JANFEBMARAPRMAYJUNJULAUGSEPOCTNOVDEC", StrMonth$) IF Num > 0 THEN Month = (Num + 2) / 3 ELSE Num = INSTR("0123456789", LEFT$(StrMonth$, 1)) IF Num > 0 THEN Month = VAL(StrMonth$) IF Month = 0 OR Month > 12 THEN InErr ELSE InErr END IF END IF END SUB SUB GetDay '*** Get the day of the first of the month Day = 1 '*** For any date in Jan or Feb add 12 to the month and '*** subtract 1 from the year IF Month < 3 THEN Month = Month + 12 Year = Year - 1 END IF '*** Add 1 to the month and multiply by 2.61 '*** Drop the fraction (not round) afterwards Month = Month + 1 Month = FIX(Month * 2.61) '*** Add Day, Month and the last two digits of the year NewYear$ = LTRIM$(STR$(Year)) Year = VAL(RIGHT$(NewYear$, 2)) DMY = Day + Month + Year Century = VAL(LEFT$(NewYear$, 2)) '*** Add a quarter of the last two digits of the year '*** (truncated not rounded) Year = FIX(Year / 4) DMY = DMY + Year '*** Add the following factors for the year IF Century = 18 THEN Century = 2 IF Century = 19 THEN Century = 0 IF Century = 20 THEN Century = 6 IF Century = 21 THEN Century = 4 DMY = DMY + Century '*** The day of the week is the modulus of DMY divided by 7 DMY = DMY MOD 7 END SUB SUB InErr InError = 1 LOCATE 17, 30 PRINT " Invalid input " DO LOOP UNTIL INKEY$ <> "" LOCATE 17, 30 PRINT " " END SUB
There is a problem that we come across quite often. Suppose a database field contains a date and you need to identify those records where that date falls between a range of given dates. QBasic, in common with other languages, does not contain date routines, but a bit of lateral thinking makes this problem a doddle to solve.
Suppose the date in the database is in the form dd/mm/yyyy. The actual format doesn't matter as the information needed is easily extracted however it is presented. The first thing to do is to seperate out the day, month and year. In the example above this can be done by
DIM NumYear AS LONG DIM NumDate AS LONG DataDate$ = 12/08/1958 NumYear = VAL(LEFT$(DataDate$,4) (1958) NumMonth = VAL(MID$(DataDate$,4,2) (8) NumDay = VAL(RIGHT$(DataDate$,2) (12) NumYear = NumYear * 10000 (19580000) NumMonth = NumMonth * 100 (800) NumDate = NumYear + NumMonth + NumDay (19580812)
Now suppose you want to find if this date falls between 1st April 1955 and 31st March 1960. This is done by converting these two dates to a number in a similar way to the date in the database and comparing the three numbers.
IF NumDate > 19550401 AND NumDate < 19600331 THEN ............ ............ ELSE ............ ............ END IF
The programs on this page, like all the programs written for this site, can be downloaded from the DLoads page.
QBasic | Errors | 40lb Weight | Bits | Chance | Colours | Dates | Delays | File Dialog | Files | Input | Matching | Menus | Mouse | Numbers | SeqNo | SIRDS | Sorts | Text | Timer | DLoads
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