The CURRENT-DATE function returns a 21-character alphanumeric value that
represents the calendar date, time of day, and time differential from Greenwich
Mean Time provided by the system on which the function is evaluated.
The function type is alphanumeric.

Format
>>-FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE---------------------------------------><
Reading from left to right, the 21 character positions in the value returned
can be interpreted as follows:
- Character Positions
- Contents
- 1-4
- Four numeric digits of the year in the Gregorian calendar.
- 5-6
- Two numeric digits of the month of the year, in the range 01 through
12.
- 7-8
- Two numeric digits of the day of the month, in the range 01 through
31.
- 9-10
- Two numeric digits of the hours past midnight, in the range 00 through
23.
- 11-12
- Two numeric digits of the minutes past the hour, in the range 00 through
59.
- 13-14
- Two numeric digits of the seconds past the minute, in the range 00 through
59.
- 15-16
- Two numeric digits of the hundredths of a second past the second, in
the range 00 through 99.
- 17
- Either the character '-' or the character '+'. The character '-' is
returned if the local time indicated in the previous character positions is
behind Greenwich Mean Time. The character '+' is returned if the local time
indicated is the same as or ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
- 18-19
- If character position 17 is '-', two numeric digits are returned in
the range 00 through 12 indicating the number of hours that the reported time
is behind Greenwich Mean Time. If character position 17 is '+', two numeric
digits are returned in the range 00 through 13 indicating the number of hours
that the reported time is ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
- 20-21
- Two numeric digits are returned in the range 00 through 59 indicating
the number of additional minutes that the reported time is ahead of or behind
Greenwich Mean Time, depending on whether character position 17 is '+' or
'-', respectively.
For more information, see the IBM Rational Development Studio for i: ILE COBOL Programmer's Guide.