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Article #25387: Why InterBase is Year 2000 Compliant

Problem:
Many customers are concerned that their  computer 
applications may not be able to handle the change 
over from 1999 to year 2000 correctly.  Many older 
computer systems stored dates in two digit numbers. 
This will result in confusion if the programmer does 
not address this before the year 2000, because it will 
not be clear whether 00 means the year 1900 or the 
year 2000.


Solution:
/*******************************************************************************/
Note: The information in this article applies to
            all InterBase  versions.
/********************************************************************************/


InterBase is year 2000 compliant because of the 
way we store dates.   We store the full 32 bit 
representation of the year.    The earliest possible 
year stored in InterBase is 1862.   The 32bit 
representation of the year portion of the date makes
it possible to store up to two billion possible 
years. We also store a 32 bit represesentation of 
seconds in the date column.  As a result, InterBase
date fields will not be adversely affected by the turn 
of the century. 

*** If  a customer wants to store dates in two digit 
format, not using InterBase's date field, strongly 
discourage them from doing so. If they really want 
to have two digit representation of dates, remind 
them to build logic into their code to make 00 greater 
than 99.

Last Modified: 18-OCT-00