This example shows a case where it is better to leave a field as a nondate, and use the DATEVAL intrinsic function in a comparison statement.
Assume that a field Date-Copied is referenced many times in a program, but that most of the references just move the value between records or reformat it for printing. Only one reference relies on it to contain a date (for comparison with another date). In this case, it is better to leave the field as a nondate, and use the DATEVAL intrinsic function in the comparison statement. For example:
03 Date-Distributed Pic 9(6) Date Format yyxxxx. 03 Date-Copied Pic 9(6). . . . If Function DATEVAL(Date-Copied "YYXXXX") Less than Date-Distributed . . .
In this example, DATEVAL converts Date-Copied to a date field so that the comparison will be meaningful.
related references
DATEVAL (Enterprise COBOL Language Reference)