CONVERTTIME

Converts an architected date and time stamp string to the ABSTIME format. CONVERTTIME analyzes three different date and time stamp formats which are commonly used on the Internet, and converts them to the ABSTIME (absolute date and time) format.

ABSTIME format gives the time, in packed decimal, since 00:00 on 1 January 1900 (in milliseconds rounded to the nearest hundredth of a second). The FORMATTIME command can be used to change this into other formats.

The architected date and time stamp string formats recognized by the CONVERTTIME command are:

RFC 1123 format: The preferred standard format for date and time stamps for the HTTP protocol, as specified in RFC 1123. An example of a date and time stamp in this format is "Tue, 01 Apr 2003 10:01:02  GMT".

 
RFC 850 format: An older date and time stamp format for the Internet. An example of a date and time stamp in this format is "Tuesday, 01-Apr-03 10:01:02 GMT".

 
ASCtime format: A date and time stamp format output from the C ASCtime function. An example of a date and time stamp in this format is  "Tue Apr 1 10:01:02 2003".

Options

DATESTRING(data-area)

specifies a 64-character data-area to contain the architected date and time stamp string. You can supply a string in any of the formats recognized by the command, and you do not need to specify which format is used.

ABSTIME(DATA-AREA)

specifies a data-area to receive the converted date and time stamp in ABSTIME format. For the format of this data-area, see the description of the ASKTIME command. If the date and time stamp was not in a recognized format, no ABSTIME is returned.