Grocer Function

NAME

diff_date - returns the difference between 2 dates

CALLING SEQUENCE

num=diff_date(lastdate,firstdate)

PARAMETERS

Input

Output

DESCRIPTION

Computes the number of observations between 2 dates.

EXAMPLE

1) d = diff_date('1995a','1985a')
2) d = diff_date('1987q4','1985q2')
3) d = diff_date('72m1','83m12')

The first example gives 10, the second 10 also and the third -143.

AUTHOR

Eric Dubois 2002