Just the other day, I needed to set a Date to null or blank, and I couldn’t remember how to do it. Here’s my notes so that I can remember next time. Javier’s blog came to the rescue:
Javier’s PeopleSoft blog: Setting Date Variables to Null in PeopleCode
The short version is: use the Date(0) function:
Local Date &hireDate;
&hireDate = Date(0);
Here’s some more information to explore a little more in depth…
The Date() function is designed to convert a numeric date into a date value. Here’s PeopleBooks description:
The Date function takes a number in the form YYYYMMDD and returns a corresponding Date value. If the date is invalid, Date displays an error message.
A better example of that function might be:
&hireDate = Date(19970713);
It does say that passing an invalid date throws an error, but apparently it will accept 0 and convert it to a null.
If you try to use null, you will get an error message. For example, this PeopleCode:
Local Date &hireDate;
&hireDate = Null;
You will get this error:
Assignment left hand side of type Date is not compatible with right hand side of type Object. (2,47)
If this were SQL, we could use the %DateNull Meta-SQL message. That might look something like this:
UPDATE PS_JOBUPDATE_STAGE
SET NEW_EFFDT = %DateNull