I have the code below where I'm comparing 2 dates to exit the loop. The loop does not exit, even if the vTmpDate becomes > vMaxDate. What is the correct way of performing date comparisons? Thanks in advance!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
let vMinDate = MakeDate(2013,06,30);
let vMaxDate = MakeDate(2014,04,30);
let vTmpDate = vMinDate;
let i = 0;
DO WHILE Date#('$(vTmpDate)') <= Date#('$(vMaxDate)')
I was able to fix the issue by using the actual variables instead of doing a Dollar Sign Expansion $(...) in the loop condition:
DO WHILE vTmpDate <= vMaxDate
But now I'm confused as when to use DSE versus when to use the actual variables. I've read that it is a best practice to always use DSE. Can someone shed some light on this?
I was able to fix the issue by using the actual variables instead of doing a Dollar Sign Expansion $(...) in the loop condition:
DO WHILE vTmpDate <= vMaxDate
But now I'm confused as when to use DSE versus when to use the actual variables. I've read that it is a best practice to always use DSE. Can someone shed some light on this?
You have found the right solution. Your problem was due to the specifics of the DO statement. From the Help doc:
"Each condition is interpreted only the first time it is encountered but is evaluated for every time it encountered in the loop"
DSE is interpretation, and interpretation happens only once in DO. At start of the DO, "Date#('$(vTmpDate)')" was getting interpreted to
"Date#('6/30/2013')".
On each interation of the loop, that was getting evaluated, but $(vTmpDate) was not getting interpreted again. Therefore the evaluation was always using "Date#('6/30/2013')".
