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sbbeaudry

Date format problem

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I need some hints on how to best get myself out of a problem I have created with my data.  Many years ago I started data entry in another genealogy program and used the date format mm/dd/yyyy as that was the most familiar date format used in USA and when I changed to TMG I imported that data.  I also used that same date format in TMG for many years.  About a year or so ago, I switched to the more universal date format dd/mm/yyyy.  Immediately after the switch I checked around and it seemed to correctly make the change, so I began entering any event based upon the new date format.  Now to the problem, I was entering an additional source on some old data and noticed the date was wrong.  Instead of  9 Feb 1701/2 it said 2 Sept 1701/2.  These were the dates when the calendar changed where Jan-March changed to a different year (Julian to Gregorian calendar).  I don't know yet whether other non standard dates like when circa, before, after, etc. have  been used are also messed up or not yet.  I need an understanding of how TMG treats dates that were imported and non standard dates when the date format changes to figure out the best way out of this problem I created.  I have over 5000 people in my database.  Is the best thing to do to return to the mm/dd/yyyy format and then recheck everything done since a specific date?  Is there anyway to make a list of what has changed in the database since a specific date?  I do have TMG Utility and am running TMG 9.05.  I also have backups from various times to go back to try to figure out when I made the date change although that would be very time consuming.  Suggestions?

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You can filter the Project Explorer for the 'Last Edited Date' to get a list of people's names who have been edited since a specified date.

How a date displays has nothing to do with how it's stored in the database. Dates are stored in a standard format and can be displayed in many formats.

Check Michael's bug list under 'Data Entry' to see if any of the date issues might apply to your problem.

https://www.mjh-nm.net/BUGS.HTML#TOCDataEntry

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1 hour ago, sbbeaudry said:

... I was entering an additional source on some old data and noticed the date was wrong.  Instead of  9 Feb 1701/2 it said 2 Sept 1701/2.  These were the dates when the calendar changed where Jan-March changed to a different year (Julian to Gregorian calendar)... I need an understanding of how TMG treats dates that were imported and non standard dates when the date format changes to figure out the best way out of this problem I created. 

Hi,

I don't think any of the few remaining bugs I have identified in TMG apply here.  Perhaps the detailed descriptions in my on-line book of how TMG deals with dates might help your understanding:

https://www.mjh-nm.net/DATENTRY.HTML#Dates

That section also mentions that if the complete date entry is all numbers and the day is not greater than 12 (such as your example above), TMG must guess which is the day and which the month.  TMG does this based on your global Preference setting for the Date Format in “Program Options / General”.  To emphasize what Jim said, no matter which format was used to enter dates if it is not irregular they will be displayed using this Preferences selected Date Format. Further, regardless of this Preferences selection they will be printed in Narrative report based on the date option chosen for the report in the Dates Options tab (if there are options).   That is possible because TMG converts the entry and stores all dates in a fixed internal structure.  Then regardless of how the date was entered TMG can (re)convert to any display or report format specified for output from that fixed internal structure:

https://www.mjh-nm.net/DATENTRY.HTML#DateInternals

Also in that same chapter there is a more full description of "Old Style" dates, and how TMG handles them, which are the type of dates you mention.

https://www.mjh-nm.net/DATENTRY.HTML#DateOldStyle

Hope this helps in your understanding of TMG dates.  If not feel free to ask questions.

Michael

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