This function returns
a display value representing the range of the months of the period (formatted according
to the MonthNames script variable) as well as the year. The underlying numeric
value corresponds to a timestamp of the first millisecond of the month, bi-month, quarter, tertial, or half-year containing a base date.
The number of months that defines the period. An integer or expression that resolves to an integer that must be one of: 1 (equivalent to the inmonth() function), 2 (bi-month), 3 (equivalent to the inquarter() function), 4 (tertial), or 6 (half year).
date
The date to evaluate.
period_no
The period can be offset by period_no, an integer, or expression resolving to an integer, where the value 0 indicates the period that contains base_date. Negative values in period_no indicate preceding periods and
positive values indicate succeeding periods.
first_month_of_year
If you
want to work with (fiscal) years not starting in January, indicate
a value between 2 and 12 in first_month_of_year.
These examples use the date format DD/MM/YYYY. The date format is specified in the SET DateFormat statement at the top of your data load script. Change the format in the examples to suit your requirements.
Scripting examples
Example
Result
monthsname(4, '19/10/2013')
Returns 'Sep-Dec 2013. Because in this and the other examples, the SET Monthnames statement is set to Jan;Feb;Mar, and so on.
monthsname(4, '19/10/2013', -1)
Returns 'May-Aug 2013.
monthsname(4, '19/10/2013', 0, 2)
Returns Oct-Jan 2014. Because the year is specified to begin in month 2, therefore the four-month period ends on the first month of the following year.
Example:
Add the example script to your app and run it. Then add the fields listed in the results column to a sheet in your app to see the result.
In this example, for each invoice date in the table, the months name is created from the range of months in the bi-month period, and from the year. The range is offset by 4x2 months by specifying period_no as 4.
TempTable:
LOAD RecNo() as InvID, * Inline [
InvDate
28/03/2012
10/12/2012
5/2/2013
31/3/2013
19/5/2013
15/9/2013
11/12/2013
2/3/2014
14/5/2014
13/6/2014
7/7/2014
4/8/2014
];
InvoiceData:
LOAD *,
MonthsName(2, InvDate, 4) AS MthsName
Resident TempTable;
Drop table TempTable;
The resulting table contains the original dates and a column with the return value of the monthsname() function.
Results table
InvDate
MthsName
28/03/2012
Nov-Dec 2012
10/12/2012
Jul-Aug 2013
5/2/2013
Sep-Oct 2013
31/3/2013
Nov-Dec2013
19/5/2013
Jan-Feb 2014
15/9/2013
May-Jun 2014
11/12/2013
Jul-Aug 2014
2/3/2014
Nov-Dec 2014
14/5/2014
Jan-Feb 2015
13/6/2014
Jan-Feb 2015
7/7/2014
Mar-Apr 2015
4/8/2014
Mar-Apr 2015
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