RE: Current Day!

[PD Manager <pdmanager@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At the risk of opening this can of worms again: you are correct in your
assumption.  All numbers in MetaStock are stored as single-precision
floating point numbers.  With this type of floating point representation,
the computer only guarantees 7 digits of precision.  When you have a number
that exceeds this number of digits, any digits beyond the seventh are not
guaranteed to be accurate.  Any numbers that contain more digits than 7 are
only approximations.  

To restate from past discussions on the subject: In the future, we could
move to double precision numbers to get 15 digits of precision (any digits
beyond the 15th would be inaccurate), but this would more than double the
memory requirements of the program.  The additional memory requirements of
this approach is why the decision to make this change has not been made up
to this point.

Ken Hunt
Programming Manager
Equis International


-----Original Message-----
From: John R [mailto:jrdrp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 3:52 PM
To: metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Current Day!


I would guess this problem is caused by the underlying floating point
representation MS probably uses for numeric variables. i.e. losing accuracy
at the extreme limits of range.

Instead of using full century why not try using just 2 digits i.e. 00, 01,
99. Or if year collating order is reqd. 3 digits i.e. 098 (for 1998) 099
(for 1999) 100 (for 2000) 101 (for 2001) etc.

Haven't checked any of this!

John


----- Original Message -----
From: "C.S." <csaxe@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 8:38 PM
Subject: Re: Current Day!


I tried the equation backwards to see if DDMMYYYY would work.

DOM:=DayOfMonth();
MON:=Month();
YR:=Year();
YR+(MON*10000)+(DOM*1000000)

It works for the first day but not for the days at the end of the month.
for 4/30/2001 I get 30042000 and not 30042001.

-Corey
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Steve Brann
  To: metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 9:36 AM
  Subject: RE: Current Day!


  Hi L

  Thanks. Version 7.02 end of day version.

  I am also getting results such as 20001032 (Oct 32nd, 2000) when I should
be getting 20001101 (Nov 1st,2000).  Interesting eh?

  Steve
    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Lionel Issen
    Sent: 02 May 2001 14:52
    To: metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Subject: Re: Current Day!


    Steve:
    This is an excellent concise method.

    What version are you using?

    Lionel Issen
    lissen@xxxxxxxxx
      ----- Original Message -----
      From: Steve Brann
      To: metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
      Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 7:05 AM
      Subject: Current Day!


      Hi

      I use the following in my explorations to denote the date of the last
price data in the format yyyymmdd;

      DayOfMonth()+(Month()*100)+(Year()*10000)

      However, this fails if the date is the first of the month such as
March 1st 2001, instead of getting 20010301 I get 20010300!

      Has anyone else experienced this and if so is there a solution?  By
the way, using DayOfMonth() on its own produces 01.

      Thanks in advance

      Steve