Tech Tip: A utility to return the month name, full or abbreviation, for a given date

PRODUCT: 4D | VERSION: 14.3 | PLATFORM: Mac & Win

Published On: May 8, 2015

Prior 4D Knowledgebase versions of this function, FN_MonthName, which depended on Get indexed string does not wotk in modern versions of 4D. The utility below will return either the full month name or its abbreviation.

UTIL_MonthName

If (True)
   If (False)
      Begin SQL
         /*
          Name: UTIL_MonthName
          Path: UTIL_MonthName

          Written by Charles Vass - 04/29/2015, 10:39

          Purpose: Return the text month name of a date

          $0 - TEXT - Name or abbreviation of target month
          $1 - DATE - Date with tartget month
          $2 - BOOLEAN - TRUE = Abbreviation, FALSE = Full name
         */
      End SQL
   End if
   C_TEXT($MethodName_T)
   $MethodName_T:=Current method name
    //===================== Declare Variables ==================================
    //method_parameters_declarations
   C_TEXT($0;$Name_T)
   C_DATE($Dt_D;$1)
   C_BOOLEAN($Abbr_B;$2)
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    //method_wide_constants_declarations
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    //local_variable_declarations
   C_LONGINT($Ndx;$SOA;$RIS;$Params_L)

End if
//====================== Initialize and Setup ================================

$Params_L:=Count parameters
$Dt_D:=$1
If ($Params_L>1)
   $Abbr_B:=$2
End if

//======================== Method Actions ==================================

$Name_T:=String($Dt_D;Internal date long)
If ($Abbr_B)
   $Name_T:=Substring($Name_T;1;3)
Else
   $Name_T:=Substring($Name_T;1;Position(" ";$Name_T)-1)
End if

//======================== Clean up and Exit =================================

$0:=$Name_T

Example useage:

// Get full month name
//

$Name:= UTIL_MonthName(Current date)

-- or --

$Name:= UTIL_MonthName(Current date;False)

// Get abbreviated month name
//

$Name:= UTIL_MonthName(Current date;True)