esPubDate (pubdate)

In which input files is this field used?

In DBS files (and in story-items in DBI files)

What should the field look like?

In the usual files: not used
In FSB files: First line, between the first '(' and the next ')'. In the form dd-mm-yyyy.
In the files y.dbs and z.dbs: fixed position
In the files y.dbs and z.dbs when the storycode starts with YM 0, YM 1, ZM 0, ZM 1, YX 0, YX 1, ZX 0, ZX 1, or ZT: fixed position

What does the field contain?

The date of the first publication of a story (or of the first part of a story).

The pubdate is generated by the DIZNI program, using information from the headers of all reprints of the story (using the issdate field).

In the case of I-coded stories and newspaper strips, the date of the first publication is given in the DBS file. In other cases, all publication dates are compared, and the earliest one is taken.

Which checks are done?

The field always has the (international standard) format "yyyy-mm-dd".
If the day is unknown, the field has no "-dd" ("yyyy-mm"). If the month is unknown too, the date is simply a 4-digit year.

If only the quarter of the year is known, the date format is "yyyy-Qx" where x is 1, 2, 3, or 4. For instance "1998-Q3" = 3rd quarter of 1998.

A date field can be followed by a '?'.

If a date contains a letter 'y', 'm', or 'd', the rest of the date, starting with this letter, is ignored. This allows dates like "1978-mm-dd" and "1978-03-dd". (This feature was added to make the input more readable. Use it with care!)

Note that the full 4-digit year is mentioned in the date.

The checking on real dates is not done completely, for instance February 29th is allowed in all years.

Which CSV field(s) use this field?

The field publicationdate in table inducks_movie
The field firstpublicationdate in table inducks_story

This page was generated on 2007-12-13 by DVEGEN 4.8 © Harry Fluks 2003.
For more information contact Harry Fluks (hfl at inducks.org - replace the at)