Just a short addendum: Since you know that you'll only be stripping off one of the known weekday names, there's also a simpler solution:
.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------- .de DATE*SHORT \c .XX \\*[DATE*FULL] .. .de XX .ds BB \\$* .ds AA \\$1 .shift .if '\\*(AA'Sunday,' .ds BB \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Monday,' .ds BB \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Tuesday,' .ds BB \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Wednesday,' .ds BB \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Thursday,' .ds BB \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Friday,' .ds BB \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Saturday,' .ds BB \\$* .BB .. .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------- .ds DATE*FULL Friday, December 31, 2038 .sp 3c Full date is: \*[DATE*FULL]. .br Short date is: \*[DATE*SHORT]. .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------- However, there is still a caveat with these solutions: although \*[DATE*SHORT] may look like a (single-line) string expansion, it is actually a (multi-line) macro call in disguise. This means that the following will not work: .ds LH Formatted on \*[DATE*SHORT] (for example, to set the page header in some hypothetical document). Because the above is likely to lead to nasty surprises, I'd prefer something with a slightly different application syntax: .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------- .de SET_DATE .ds DATE*FULL \\$* .XX \\$* .. .de XX .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .ds AA \\$1 .shift .if '\\*(AA'Sunday,' .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Monday,' .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Tuesday,' .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Wednesday,' .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Thursday,' .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Friday,' .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .if '\\*(AA'Saturday,' .ds DATE*SHORT \\$* .. .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------- .SET_DATE Friday, December 31, 2038 .sp 3c Full date is: \*[DATE*FULL]. .br Short date is: \*[DATE*SHORT]. .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------- which uses DATE*SHORT as a "real" string instead of a macro.
