MONTHNAME

Synopsis

{fn MONTHNAME(date-expression)}

Description

MONTHNAME takes as input a Caché date integer, a $HOROLOG or $ZTIMESTAMP value, an ODBC format date string, or a timestamp.

A date-expression timestamp is data type %Library.TimeStampOpens in a new tab (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.fff).

The time portion of the timestamp is not evaluated and can be omitted. The date-expression can also be specified as data type %Library.FilemanDate, %Library.FilemanTimestamp, or %MV.Date.

MONTHNAME returns the name of the corresponding calendar month, January through December. The returned value is a character string with a maximum length of 15.

MONTHNAME checks that the date supplied is a valid date. The year must be between 1841 and 9999 (inclusive), the month 01 through 12, and the day appropriate for that month (for example, 02/29 is only valid on leap years). If the date is not valid, MONTHNAME issues an SQLCODE -400 error (Fatal error occurred).

The names of months default to the full-length American English month names. To change these month name values, use the SET OPTION command with the MONTH_NAME option.

The same month name information can be returned by using the DATENAME function. You can use TO_DATE to retrieve a month name or a month name abbreviation with other date elements. To return an integer corresponding to the month, use MONTH DATEPART or TO_DATE.

This function can also be invoked from ObjectScript using the MONTHNAME()Opens in a new tab method call:

$SYSTEM.SQL.MONTHNAME(date-expression)

Examples

The following examples both return the character string "February" because it is the month of the date expression (February 16, 2000):

SELECT {fn MONTHNAME('2000-02-16')} AS NameOfMonth

SELECT {fn MONTHNAME(59589)} AS NameOfMonth

The following examples all return the current month:

SELECT {fn MONTHNAME({fn NOW()})} AS MnameNow,
       {fn MONTHNAME(CURRENT_DATE)} AS MNameCurrDate,
       {fn MONTHNAME(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)} AS MNameCurrTS,
       {fn MONTHNAME($HOROLOG)} AS MNameHorolog,
       {fn MONTHNAME($ZTIMESTAMP)} AS MNameZTS

The following Embedded SQL example shows how MONTHNAME responds to an invalid date (the year 2001 was not a leap year):

   SET testdate="2001-02-29"
   &sql(SELECT {fn MONTHNAME(:testdate)} INTO :a)
   IF SQLCODE'=0 {
     WRITE !,"Error code ",SQLCODE,!
     WRITE %msg,! }
   ELSE {
     WRITE !,"returns: ",a }
   QUIT

The SQLCODE -400 error code is issued with the %msg indicating <ILLEGAL VALUE>. This validity test is performed before testing if the date is in the allowed range of years (after 1840).

The following embedded SQL example shows how MONTHNAME responds to a valid, but out-of-range date (the year 1835 is too early for Caché SQL):

   SET testdate="1835-02-19"
   &sql(SELECT {fn MONTHNAME(:testdate)} INTO :a)
   IF SQLCODE'=0 {
     WRITE !,"Error code ",SQLCODE,!
     WRITE %msg,! }
   ELSE {
     WRITE !,"returns: ",a }
   QUIT

The SQLCODE -400 error code is issued with the %msg indicating <VALUE OUT OF RANGE>.

See Also

• SQL functions: DATEPART DATENAME DAYOFMONTH MONTH TO_DATE

• ObjectScript function: $ZDATE

• ObjectScript special variables: $HOROLOG $ZTIMESTAMP