PUBLICATION DATE FIELDS (PUBDATE, STARTDATE, ENDDATE)

Which fields are explained on this page?

What are these fields about?

The 3 dates on this page have different meanings, depending on the context.

	pubdate	startdate	enddate
Multi-part newspaper story	(= startdate)	in yzsuper.dbs	in yzsuper.dbs
Other story	in FSB/DBS/DBI file	N/A	N/A
Entry (reprint of a story)	N/A	in DBI file	in DBI file

The 3 fields have the standard checks on dates.

Standard date field checks:

The field always has the (international standard) format "yyyy-mm-dd".
If the day is unknown, the field has no "-dd" ("yyyy-mm"). If the month is unknown too, the date is simply a 4-digit year.

If only the quarter of the year is known, the date format is "yyyy-Qx" where x is 1, 2, 3, or 4. For instance "1998-Q3" = 3rd quarter of 1998.

A date field can be followed by a '?'.

If a date contains a letter 'y', 'm', or 'd', the rest of the date, starting with this letter, is ignored. This allows dates like "1978-mm-dd" and "1978-03-dd". (This feature was added to make the input more readable. Use it with care!)

Note that the full 4-digit year is mentioned in the date.

The checking on real dates is not done completely, for instance February 29th is allowed in all years.

In which input files are these fields used?

On story lines: in DBS files, FSB files, y.dbs and z.dbs, yzsuper.dbs, w.dbi, DBI files, DPG CSV files.
On entry lines: in DBI files, w.dbi.

enddate

What should the field look like?

Syntax: [enddate:yyyy-mm-dd]. In yzsuper.dbs: fixed position.

The tag [enddate:] currently occurs (approximately) 371 times in the input files.

What does the field contain?

In DBI files: the end date, in case a story is a sequence of newspaper strips. See startdate.

In yzsuper.dbs: the "original" end date of a sequence.
The corresponding original start date is in the field startdate.

Which checks are done?

See the top of this page.
Depending on the storycode, the date is checked: for Z-codes it should be a Sunday, while for Y-codes it should not be a Sunday.

Which log messages are related to this field?

Log1 (serious)
271: ... <...> format should be yyyy-mm-dd
272: ... <...> non-digit
273: ... <...> wrong month
274a: ... <...> wrong day of month (31)
274b: ... <...> wrong day of month (30)
276: ... <...> wrong format
277: ... <...> wrong day
C05: ... <...> should contain only one date.
C06: ... <...> should not have ()
Log3 (info)
281: ... <...> should be, but is not, a Sunday (but WOULD be a Sunday if day and month swapped!)
282: ... <...> should be, but is not, a Sunday
283: ... <...> is, but should not be, a Sunday (but WOULD be a non-Sunday if day and month swapped!)
284: ... <...> is, but should not be, a Sunday

Which CSV field(s) use this field?

Table inducks_entry, field enddate
Table inducks_story, field endpublicationdate

pubdate

What should the field look like?

Syntax: [pubdate:yyyy-mm-dd]

In FSB files: First line, between the first '(' and the next ')'. In the form dd-mm-yyyy.

The tag [pubdate:] currently occurs (approximately) 268 times in the input files.

What does the field contain?

The date of the first publication of a story (or of the first part of a story).

Generally, this "oldest date" is generated by the Dizni program, using information from the headers of all reprints of the story (using the issdate field), from the story code of a newspaper strip, or from the startdate of a newspaper sequence.

In the case of I-coded stories, the date of the first publication is given explicitly in the FSB file.

In some rare cases, a story was published in a different publication before it was published in the "first" publication (the publication that defines the storycode). Then we use [pubdate:] in the story data (the story-item in a DBI file).

Also for posters and movies we use [pubdate:] explicitly.

Which checks are done?

See the top of this page.

Which log messages are related to this field?

Which CSV field(s) use this field?

Table inducks_statcharactercharacter, field yearrange
Table inducks_statcharacterstory, field yearrange
Table inducks_statpersoncharacter, field yearrange
Table inducks_statpersonperson, field yearrange
Table inducks_statpersonstory, field yearrange
Table inducks_story, field firstpublicationdate
Table inducks_substory, field firstpublicationdate

startdate

What should the field look like?

Syntax: [startdate:yyyy-mm-dd]. In yzsuper.dbs: fixed position.

The tag [startdate:] currently occurs (approximately) 355 times in the input files.

What does the field contain?

In DBI files: the start date, in case a story is a reprint of a sequence of newspaper strips.

The start and end dates can differ from the original dates of the newspaper sequence, while the indexer still thinks this is not enough to use the changes field. The reason for this is that the "original" startdate and enddate are usually not clearly defined, but based on arbitrary choices.

Which checks are done?

See the top of this page.
Depending on the storycode, the date is checked: for Z-codes it should be a Sunday, while for Y-codes it should not be a Sunday.

Which log messages are related to this field?

Which CSV field(s) use this field?

Table inducks_entry, field startdate

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