| ### Integer date limits

Integer dates are the number of days from some point in the past. These can be useful for easily comparing and sorting dates, and they need only 4 bytes in stored data. However, there is a multiplicity of starting dates, depending on the source of the date, which means the same date obtained from different sources has different integer values. To get a correct compare or sort, you must be certain that the date data involved were derived from the same start date.

Integer date starting points
CICS, MVS, DB2 PL/I * C COBOL Language Environment | start with Jan 1, 1900 start with Oct 15, 1582 start with Jan 1, 1970 start with Jan 1, 1601 start with Oct 15, 1582
Solution for COBOL:
Use COBOL for MVS & VM (or COBOL for OS/390 & VM) install option | INTDATE(LILIAN) or INTDATE(ANSI) Use INTDATE(LILIAN) to get Lang.Env. Lilian dates from intrinsic functions so the same start date is being used.

* Support in workstation compilers only.

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