I thought the date problem I was having was restricted to FPW. But try this in a VFP program

Test.prg
set date mdy
x= {1/8/1998}
? month(x) && => 1
set date ymd
x= {1998/8/1}
? month(x) && => 0
set date dmy
x= {1/8/1998}
? month(x) && => 1

x= {^1998/08/01}
? month(x) && => 8
set date mdy
* EOF

Pretty awful.