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Quality Analyst and the Year 2000
NEWS: New update patches (December 1997) for NWA Quality Analyst 5.1 fully resolve all Year 2000 issues mentioned below. Further information is here. Users of NWA Quality Analyst 5.1 can download the appropriate update patch from here.
With two exceptions, NWA Quality Analyst Version 4.3 and the upcoming Version 5.1, handle the transition to the Year 2000 without difficulty. Dates expressed with the full year ("1/1/2000" rather than "l/l/00") will work as expected. The exceptions, will be resolved with new releases of Quality Analyst well before the Year 2000 (see below).
The following, date-related functions and features, work correctly:
Data files sorted by date (using the MSORT function in Quality Analyst 4.3, and the Data, Sort function Version 5.0) will be sorted correctly.
The Data, Verify function in the editor will catch improper data formats, including correctly treating the Year 2000 as a leap year.
The Data, Filter function works properly in selecting data subsets by matching dates or using data ranges that include the Year 2000 and beyond
The EXTRACT function in DOS Quality Analyst and as used in Run Files treats Year 2000 and later dates properly.
Quality Analyst Versions 4.3 and 5.1 exhibit the following problems:
If the year is expressed as two digits (``00" for ``2000"), it will be assumed to begin with ``19", so years expressed as "00" and "01" will be treated as ``1900"and "1901". Dates after 1999 will need to be expressed as the full year.
Due to a flaw in the Microsoft Basic language, ``system dates" automatically read by Quality Analyst (as embedded in titles with the $DATE function, for example) will be improperly formatted. This is a cosmetic problem and does not result in an error condition.
These problems will be addressed in a future release of Quality Analyst as follows:
Users will be allowed to set a parameter to determine how two-digit year numbers are handled. For example, they can specify that years below "45" be treated as if prefixed by "20". In this case (with the date format MM/DD/YY), the date ``6/15/02" becomes "June 15, 2002, and "6/25/55" becomes "June 25, 1955".
We will be pre-processing system dates to insure that the correct format is used when dates are read from the operating system.
As a result, Quality Analyst users that update as new versions become available will be able to use the software without concern for the effects of the Year 2000.
Quality Monitor and the Year 2000
With two exceptions, the current version of NWA Quality Monitor (1.2) handles the transition to the Year 2000 without difficulty. Dates expressed with the full year ("1/1/2000" rather than "1/1/00") will work as expected. The exceptions will be resolved with new releases of Quality Monitor well before the Year 2000 (see below).
The following date-related functions and features work correctly:
Data files sorted by date (using the MSORT function) will be sorted correctly
The EXTRACT function treats Year 2000 and later dates properly
Dates will be displayed correctly in all charts and reports
Problems with the Year 2000 and current versions Quality Monitor
If the year is expressed as two digits (``00" for ``2000"), it will be assumed to begin with "19", so years expressed as "00" and "01" will be treated as ``1900" and "1901".
Due to a flaw in the Microsoft Basic language, "system dates" read by Quality Monitor will be improperly formatted. If the system date is being automatically read to include as a variable in a data set, an improperly formatted date will be written to the file. These dates will not be valid for sorting and subset selection.
These problems will be addressed in a future release of Quality Monitor as follows:
Users will be allowed to set a parameter to determine how two-digit year numbers are handled. For example, they can specify that years below ``45" be treated as if prefixed by "20". In this case (with the date format MM/DD/YY), the date ``6/15/02" becomes "June 15, 2002", and ``6/25/55" becomes ``June 25, 1955".
We will be pre-processing system dates to insure that the correct format is used when dates are read automatically from the system.
As a result, Quality Monitor users that update as new versions become available will be able to use the software without concern for the effects of the Year 2000. |
Updated:
99/11 |
