ALLBASE/BRW JCWs for Year 2000

by Kelly Sznaider Support Technology Lab

For year 2000 compliance, two JCWs were created in earlier versions of BRW. However, the defaults of these JCWs have been changed as of version A.01.57.

As year 2000 rapidly approaches, it is strongly recommended to use four-digit years instead of two-digits. If four-digit years are used in your files and databases, then these BRW JCWs can be ignored.

The remainder of this article provides information about the BRW JCWs which support the reading and writing of two-digit years. They describe how BRW should interpret these years, as 1900 based or 2000 based. As of version A.01.57, the defaults are 2000 based instead of 1900 based.

HP's MM II customers using ALLBASE/BRW should review these JCWs carefully and preset them accordingly.

This change in the product's behavior is specific to ALLBASE/BRW, not BRW/V.

Set the JCWs in session mode and also, in BRWJOB/BRWJ000 for batch processing.
The JCWs will map '00'..'49' to '2000'..'2049' or to '1900'.. '1949' depending upon the settings. Two-digit years of '50' to '99' are mapped to '1950'..'1999' regardless of the setting of the JCWs.
If these JCWs are not set, then it is the same as setting these JCWs to 1. Setting these JCWs to 1 (or not setting them) assumes two-digit years with the century as "20" (for years '00' to '49' only). Setting the JCWs to 0 assumes two-digit years with the century as "19", which was the default prior to version A.01.56.
The JCWs can be set differently depending upon the desired results.
- ALLBASE/BRW versions A.01.56 and earlier set the JCWs as the following if not specified:
  BRWCENTURYROUNDING = 0BRWUSERCENTURYROUNDING = 0
- As of version A.01.57, the JCWs are defaulted as:
  BRWCENTURYROUNDING = 1BRWUSERCENTURYROUNDING = 1

BRWCENTURYROUNDING

The following apply to BRWCENTURYROUNDING:

If set to 1 (or not set), a date range of 1950 - 2049 is assumed for all two-digit years in user parameters values, constants in calculated items and selection conditions, and in data files.
If set to 0, a date range of 1900 - 1999 is assumed for all two-digit years in data files.

BRWUSERCENTURYROUNDING

The following apply to BRWUSERCENTURYROUNDING:

If BRWCENTURYROUNDING is set to 0, then this JCW is examined.
If set to 1 (or not set), a date range of 1950 - 2049 is assumed for all two-digit years in parameter values and for date constants appearing in calculated items or selection conditions. (This JCW excludes data files.)
If set to 0, a date range of 1900 - 1999 is assumed for all two-digit years in parameter values and for date constants appearing in calculated items or selection conditions (excluding data files).
NOTE: The date range can affect some reports which assume that 01/01/00 is the smallest possible year, or that 12/31/99 is the largest possible year.

For example, if the JCWs were set as the following for ALLBASE/BRW A.01.56:

BRWCENTURYROUNDING not set BRWCENTURYROUNDING = 1

Then for A.01.57, specify the JCW settings to get the same functionality as in A.01.56:

BRWCENTURYROUNDING = 0 BRWCENTURYROUNDING not set (or = 1)

If either of these JCWs are currently specified, then you should specify both JCWs in your logon environments prior to version A.01.57. Then when ALLBASE/BRW is upgraded to version A.01.57 or later, the BRW application will continue to query correctly using 1900 as the base.

ALLBASE/BRW JCWs for Year 2000

Technical documentation

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BRWCENTURYROUNDING

BRWUSERCENTURYROUNDING