Date Masks

The date mask (date format) specifies how SoftRater interprets dates being passed into an input file. The value entered for the mask will be the format used to validate the data that you enter for variables.

Date formats are displayed as entered and will be executed and evaluated as you expect during rating. Date formats are carried through to any new versions or revisions.

Dates must contain:

  • 2 digit Month entry MM
  • 2 digit Day entry DD
  • 4 digit Year entry YYYY or a 2 digit Year entry YY
  • One of 3 separators minus sign ( -  ), period ( . ) or slash ( / ) Special characters are not allowed. The list of special characters can be found in Naming Restrictions.

Date formats are defined in the product. Any program in the product uses the defined format. A different format can be entered in the program.

  • Date formats can be in any combination of the mandatory fields, for example MM/DD/YYYY.
  • Date format is case sensitive. You must use capital M, D, and Y.
  • A separator must be used, i.e. slash( / ) MM/DD/YYYY, minus sign ( - ) DD-MM-YYYY, or period ( . ) MM.DD.YYYY.

Dates in Upgraded Programs

Previous releases of RateManager allowed for dates to be entered without separators (or delimiters).

If you have upgraded to Insbridge 4.5 or later and you are using a date mask that does not contain separators you will need to do the following:

  1. Change all Program Date Masks to include separators (or delimiters). Change the mask to match the format of the dates entered in the Program logic (tables, version selection, etc.).
  2. Adjust any variable that is masking a field variable of date data type. You will need to make sure that the masking will work with the new Date Mask (format) set in step 1.
  3. Any dates in an Insbridge Request file will have to match the new Date Mask (format) set in step 1.

These steps need to be done on any program where the date mask does not have separators.