Periods Page of the New Calendar File Wizard

Use this page to define the base period interval to use in your new calendar.

Period Interval

Use this group box to select the pattern you want to use when creating calendar periods.

Field Description
Daily Period for every day within the range.
Weekly Period for every week within the range based on the weekday of the start date.
Monthly Period for every month based on the date of the start date. If a month does not contain this date, for example, the 31st, the last day of the month is used.
End of Month Period for every month on the last day of the month.
Quarterly Period for every third month based on the date of the start date. If a month does not contain this date, for example, the 31st, the last day of the month is used.
Yearly Period for every year based on the date of the start date.
Pattern If you select Pattern, the text field becomes enabled allowing you to enter an interval pattern. You can only use positive numbers and the following values when specifying patterns:
  • D — Daily intervals
  • W — Weekly intervals
  • M — Monthly intervals based on the start date
  • E — Monthly intervals based on end-of-month dates
  • Q — Quarterly intervals
  • Y — Yearly intervals

For example, you could define the following custom patterns for generating calendar dates:

  • 2W — Biweekly intervals
  • 3E — Trimonthly intervals using end-of-month dates
  • 4W,4W,5W — A 4-week interval, followed by a 4-week interval, followed by a 5-week interval
  • 3M,2Q — A trimonthly interval, followed by a biquarterly interval

You can also define a pattern that generates a date on the last day of your choice for each month. For example, you might want to generate a date on the last Friday of each month. To generate this type of pattern, specify LAST<day> where <day> is a day of the week. So, to generate a date on the last Friday of each month, you would enter LAST FRI in the Pattern field.

Range

Use the Range group box to specify the length of the calendar.

Field Description
Starting Enter a start date for the calendar.
Ending Enter an end date for the calendar.
Interval You can enter an interval rather than an ending date, which tells Cobra the number of times to repeat the period interval specified.

Standard date formats are supported using m, d, and y as month, day, and year indicators or day followed by 3 letter month followed by year (01Jan07).

  • 31dec is interpreted as 31Dec07 if 2007 is the current year.
  • 13/12/07 is always interpreted as December 13, 2007 because 13 cannot be interpreted as a month.
  • If you enter a date that is all numeric (10/01/07), the order of the month and year from the Windows system is used.
Note: You can also use the Integration wizard to import a calendar.