x

AYM(indate, months, outfield)

where:

indate

I4, I4YM, I6, or I6YYM

Is the original date in year-month format, the name of a field that contains the date, or an expression that returns the date. If the date is not valid, the function returns the value 0 (zero).

months

Integer

Is the number of months you are adding to or subtracting from the date. To subtract months, use a negative number.

outfield

I4YM or I6YYM

Is the name of the field that contains the result, or the format of the output value enclosed in single quotation marks.

Tip: If the input date is in integer year-month-day format (I6YMD or I8YYMD), divide the date by 100 to convert to year-month format and set the result to an integer. This drops the day portion of the date, which is now after the decimal point.

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Example: Adding Months to a Date

The COMPUTE command converts the dates in HIRE_DATE from year-month-day to year-month format and stores the result in HIRE_MONTH. AYM then adds six months to HIRE_MONTH and stores the result in AFTER6MONTHS:

TABLE FILE EMPLOYEE
PRINT HIRE_DATE AND COMPUTE
HIRE_MONTH/I4YM = HIRE_DATE/100 ;
AFTER6MONTHS/I4YM = AYM(HIRE_MONTH, 6, AFTER6MONTHS);
BY LAST_NAME BY FIRST_NAME
WHERE DEPARTMENT EQ 'MIS';
END

The output is:

LAST_NAME        FIRST_NAME  HIRE_DATE  HIRE_MONTH  AFTER6MONTHS
---------        ----------  ---------  ----------  ------------
BLACKWOOD        ROSEMARIE    82/04/01       82/04         82/10
CROSS            BARBARA      81/11/02       81/11         82/05
GREENSPAN        MARY         82/04/01       82/04         82/10
JONES            DIANE        82/05/01       82/05         82/11
MCCOY            JOHN         81/07/01       81/07         82/01
SMITH            MARY         81/07/01       81/07         82/01