I expect this has been posted before (or something like it), but since we are so close to the rollover I thought it worth reminding us all of the upcoming dates to watch - starting tomorrow! - as listed by IBM.

- snip -

1999-12-16 Forward date transactions 15 days.

1999-12-30 Last working day of 1999.

1999-12-31 Last day before 2-digit year equals '00'. Many systems will not operate correctly as they transition to the next day. Also sometimes used to indicate 'never expires' date (IBM tapes are marked 99365).

2000-01-00 This date should not be processed, though some spreadsheets and database applications do have this problem and count January 0 as a day before January 1.

2000-01-01 First weekend in 2000 (New Year's Day falls on a Saturday); First month in 2000 beginning on a weekend.

2000-01-01 Embedded date chip failure has been found.

2000-01-03 First official working day (for much of the world). First possible payday after rollover.

2000-01-04 First business day of 2000 in the U.K. 2000-01-06 First possible weekday mistaken for a weekend day.

2000-01-07 First Friday.

2000-01-10 First 7 or 8 character date in YYYY/M/DD format (2000/1/10 or 2000/01/10).

2000-01-14 Back date transactions 30 days, 15 days, and so on...

- end snip -

Link

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 15, 1999

Answers

One goodie in here for me:

"backdate transactions". First time I see mentioned the (obvious ) problem to have to look back from the 2000 era into the 99 time frame.

-- W (me@home.now), December 15, 1999.

As I have posted here a few times before the problem, at least in the legacy systems I am familiar with, is a REAL TIME problem. Stuff hits the fan when a 00 date data format hunts down something in a 99 format. Code that has been remediated(with exception of financial industry) is mostly(50-60%) dog doo. In guaranteed failure mode.

-- Get Real (gaf@mindspring.com), December 15, 1999.

I personaly think the "forward dated transactions" problem is a bit of a red herring. After all, applications that process things like mortgage amortization/renewal, bond maturities, etc. have been dealing with Y2K dates since the 70's.

The back dated transactions issue is one that could really come back to bite everyone is the ass though...

-- Alfred E. Newman (mickey@disney.com), December 15, 1999.