When the combination |H (vertical bar, H) is used in conjunction with any Date code, causes the editing format to be automatically expanded from 6 digits to 8 digits (to accommodate the century.) However, on return (and on pre-load) the field is converted to/from 6 digit "HexaDecade" format. In "HexaDecade" format, years past 99 are encoded using one hex digit followed by one decimal digit. For example, year 100 (e.g. 2000) would be "A0", year 105 (e.g. 2005) would be "A5", year 111 (e.g. 2011) would be "B1", etc. The advantage of this system is that it eliminates the need to expand existing date fields from 6 to 8 bytes, yet preserves sort order. It does, however, require that you deal with converting from "HexaDecade" format to "normal" format for printing and other display purposes. (Fortunately, this would typically be a matter of cosmetics rather than processing accuracy, although you may need to also watch out for any mathematical operations on dates.)

Note: Setting OPTIONS=HEXDEC may take care of most or all of the display, printing, and math issues as well. Refer to the A-Shell User’s Guide for more details.