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EncodeDate

function EncodeDate(Year, Month, Day: Word): TDateTime;

Example​

procedure ScriptEvent(var Value: variant);
begin
  Value := EncodeDate(2028, 2, 29); // Leap-day midnight
end;

Usage​

EncodeDate encodes validated Gregorian year, month and day fields as a midnight TDateTime value.

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
YearWordGregorian year 1..9999.
MonthWordCalendar month 1..12.
DayWordOne-based day valid for the supplied month and year; February accepts 29 only in a leap year.

Returns

A TDateTime for 00:00:00.000 at the start of the requested date. Dates before Velox's 30 December 1899 epoch have a negative whole-number representation.

Errors

An invalid year, month or day raises EConvertError. Velox does not catch or translate the exception.

Additional Technical Info​

EncodeDate constructs a Delphi TDateTime at midnight from calendar year, month and day fields. Velox binds the script declaration directly to Delphi System.SysUtils.EncodeDate.

The example is fictional, deterministic and source-reviewed. It was not executed by the documentation workflow.

Implementation

The modified PascalScript date library exposes the exact four-byte Word inputs and registers Delphi's System.SysUtils.EncodeDate as the runtime terminal. The RTL validates the fields and converts the Gregorian date to Delphi's day-count representation. No time, timezone or locale is consulted.

Edge cases and quirks

  • The year range is 1..9999; year zero is not supported.
  • The valid Day range depends on both Month and leap-year status. The routine does not normalise values such as day 32 into the following month.
  • Midnight is a timezone-neutral encoded value. EncodeDate does not mean local midnight or UTC midnight until the surrounding integration assigns that interpretation.
  • Free Pascal provides the same basic contract, but the installed Delphi RTL is the authority for Velox exception and representation behaviour.

Side effects

None.

Performance and concurrency

Constant-time arithmetic with no allocation or shared mutable state.

Related entries

External references

Created 2026-07-15