Dumping SMF data – last n day’s worth

For many years, I’ve been processing SMF data, and using the date option like DATE(2026012,2027000). Every day, I had to change it to match today’s date, and submit the job.

I’ve just discovered you can give relative dates. For example RELATIVEDATE(BYDAY,0,1), which says go back 0 days and includes 1 day – so just do today.

The output listing has, for today’s date day 19 of 2026:

IFA834I RELATIVEDATE PARAMETER RESULTS IN START DATE 2026.019, END         
                DATE 2026.019                                                
IFA836I RELATIVEDATE RANGE EXTENDS INTO FUTURE, END DATE AND TIME USED       
                IS 2026.019 11:29                                            

You can specify BYDAY, BYWEEK, and BYMONTH.

This function has been around for years! I wonder how much time I’ve wasted on doing it the old way.