dBase III Subroutines  
                               ----- --- ----------- 



      DBase III allows for many applications to be performed, yet a few
      necessary tasks are unavailable using commands alone. 
      For example, punctuating numbers.  The PICTURE clause allows for
      formatting numbers while using @ GET's only - there is no PICTURE clause
      for displaying numbers on a printout.  Because of this, I have developed
      a subroutine to punctuate numbers.  DBase III also, has no command for
      determining the number of month between two dates.  Therefore, I have
      created a subroutine to do this, as well.   



      The following subroutine will place commas into numbers up to 9 digits
      in length.  The number to which punctuation is desired is NUMBER,
      resulting value is placed in NUMOUT.  Negative numbers will be preceeded
      by a hyphen '-'. 

      For example the number 123456789 will result in 123,456,789.  


        
           IF NUMBER < 0 
              SGN = '-'
              NUMBER = -(NUMBER) 
           ELSE
              SGN = ' ' 
           ENDIF 
           * 
           NUMC = STR(NUMBER,9) 
           * 
           DO CASE 
              CASE NUMBER >= 1000000 
                 NUMOUT = SUBSTR(NUMC,1,3)+','+SUBSTR(NUMC,4,3)+','+SUBSTR(NUMC,7,3) 
              CASE NUMBER >= 1000 .AND. NUMBER < 1000000 
                 NUMOUT = SUBSTR(NUMC,4,3)+','+SUBSTR(NUMC,7,3) 
              CASE NUMBER < 1000 
                 NUMOUT = NUMC 
           ENDCASE 
           * 
           NUMOUT = SGN + NUMOUT 
            





















      The following subroutine will determine the number of months between two
      dates - NEW_DATE (most recent date) and OLD_DATE, resulting value is
      placed in NUM_MTHS.



           NEWMTH = MONTH(NEW_DATE) 
           NEWYR  = YEAR(NEW_DATE) 
           OLDMTH = MONTH(OLD_DATE) 
           OLDYR  = YEAR(OLD_DATE) 
           * 
           IF NEWYR # OLDYR 
              FIRST = 13 - OLDMTH 
              SECOND = NEWMTH - 1 
              THIRD = (NEWYR - OLDYR - 1) * 12 
              NUM_MTHS = FIRST + SECOND + THIRD 
           ELSE 
              NUM_MTHS = NEWMTH - OLDMTH 
           ENDIF 





      by Shawnn L.  Wilmoth 
      uploaded by R. R. Richardson 
      ID1272 
      Gene Plantz's BBS in Chicago