Patent ID: 7882113

Claim:
A method for generating a time constant in a plurality of specified time formats, the method comprising: scanning control statements for a data pipeline to ascertain a plurality of specified time formats and compile a list of the specified time formats contained within the scanned control statements, the specified time formats comprising yyyymmdd, yyyy/mm/dd, yyyymm, yyyy-mm, yyyyddd, yyyy.ddd, a decimal date, a decimal year and month, HHMMSS, HHMM, and HH, wherein yyyy is a year, mm is a month, dd is a day of a month, ddd is a day of a year, HH is an hour, MM is minutes, and SS is seconds and wherein the control statements are record input control statements, record filtering control statements, record formatting control statements, and record output control statements, and the data pipeline processes records as directed by the control statements; converting a time metric to a plurality of time sub-fields corresponding to all elements of the plurality of specified time formats of the compiled list, wherein the time sub-fields comprise Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) characters for a year, a day of a year, a month, a day of the month, an hour, minutes, and seconds; concatenating selected time sub-fields to provide a generated time constant in the plurality of specified time formats; storing the generated time constants in readily accessible locations; and comparing time constants within data records with the generated time constant.