monthsstart - script and chart function

This function returns a value corresponding to the timestamp of the first millisecond of the month, bi-month, quarter, tertial, or half-year containing a base date. It is also possible to find the timestamp for a previous or following time period.

Syntax:

MonthsStart(n_months, date[, period_no [, first_month_of_year]])

Return data type: dual

Arguments:

Arguments
Argument	Description
n_months	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
monthsstart(4, '19/10/2013')	Returns 1/09/2013.
monthsstart(4, '19/10/2013, -1)	Returns 01/05/2013.
monthsstart(4, '19/10/2013', 0, 2 )	Returns 01/10/2013. Because the start of the year becomes month 2.

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.

This example finds the first day of the bi-month period for each invoice date, shifted forwards by one bi-month period.

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 *,

MonthsStart(2, InvDate, 1) AS BiMthsStart

Resident TempTable;

Drop table TempTable;

The resulting table contains the original dates and a column with the return value of the MonthsStart() function.

Results table
InvDate	BiMthsStart
28/03/2012	01/05/2012
10/12/2012	01/01/2013
5/2/2013	01/03/2013
31/3/2013	01/05/2013
19/5/2013	01/07/2013
15/9/2013	01/11/2013
11/12/2013	01/01/2014
2/3/2014	01/05/2014
14/5/2014	01/07/2014
13/6/2014	01/07/2014
7/7/2014	01/09/2014
4/8/2014	01/09/2014

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