MONTHNAMES

The MONTHNAMES option holds the list of valid names for months that is used in handling values with a DATE data type and values of dimensions of type DAY, WEEK, MONTH, QUARTER, and YEAR. The list of names is used to interpret dates that are entered and to format dates that are displayed or converted to text values.

Data type

TEXT

Syntax

MONTHNAMES = name-list

Arguments

name-list: A multiline text expression that lists the names of the 12 months of the year. Each month name occupies a separate line. Regardless of which month you are treating as the first month of the year, the list must begin with the name for January. The default value is the list of English month names, all in capital letters.

Notes

Extra Sets of Names

You can include more than 1 set of 12 names in your list. Any name in the list is considered a valid name for input. The thirteenth name is a synonym for the first name, the fourteenth name is a synonym for the second name, and so on.

How MONTHNAMES Is Used

The MONTHNAMES list is used when you enter a date that includes a month name or abbreviation. See DATEORDER for a discussion of methods for entering DATE values.

The MONTHNAMES list is also used when you display or convert a date using the <MT>, <MTXT>, <MTXTL>, <MTEXT>, or <MTEXTL> formats. These formats are specified in the DATEFORMAT option. When you have more than one set of month names, Oracle OLAP chooses the synonym whose number of characters and capitalization pattern best match the DATEFORMAT specification.

Abbreviations

You can set the MONTHABBRLEN option to control the number of characters used for abbreviations of month names.

Examples

Example 18-3 Specifying Two Sets of Month Names

The following statement creates two sets of month names, one in uppercase English and the second in lowercase French.

MONTHNAMES = -
'JANUARY -
...
DECEMBER -
janvier -
...
decembre'

Example 18-4 Specifying English Month Names

The following statements define a DATE variable, assign a value to that variable, assign a setting to DATEFORMAT, and send the output to the current outfile. The DATEFORMAT value includes <MTEXT>, which specifies uppercase, so the English month names are used.

DEFINE datevar DATE
datevar = '27feb98'
DATEFORMAT = '<MTEXT> <D>, <YYYY>'
SHOW datevar

These statements produce the following output.

FEBRUARY 27, 1998

Example 18-5 Specifying French Month Names

The following statements assign a new setting to DATEFORMAT and send the output to the current outfile. The DATEFORMAT value includes <MTEXTL>, which specifies lowercase, so the French month names are used.

DATEFORMAT = 'le <D> <MTEXTL> <YYYY>'
SHOW datevar

These statements produce the following output.

le 27 fevrier 1998