Performing time-date operations

A time-date value consists of a year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. You can use a time-date value "as is" in a time-date field, but must convert it with @Text to use it as a string. You can convert a string to a time-date value with @TextToTime.

A time-date constant is a date, a time, or both, in brackets. The date is the month, day, and year separated by a slash (/) or a hyphen (-). Year is optional and defaults to the current year; a 2-digit year means the 20th century if 50 or greater, and the 21st century if less than 50.

The time is the hour, minute, and second (optional; defaults to 0) separated by colons. You can use 24-hour time or add "PM" for afternoon hours. You can add the time zone to indicate another time zone. Separate the components with spaces. Some examples of time-date constants are [6/30/97], [5:30:00 PM], [17:30:00], [17:30 EST], and [6/30 5:30 PM].

Dates can be compared and subtracted. Subtraction yields a numeric value representing seconds. To measure the difference between two dates in days, divide the result by 86,400, which is the number of seconds in a day. For example, if you have two date fields, date1 containing [07/01/01] and date2 containing [07/05/01], the following returns 345,600:

date2-date1

To display the result as 4 days instead of 345,600 seconds, use the following code:

(date2-date1)/86,400

The following @functions determine and manipulate time-date values.

Function

Description

@Accessed

Returns the time-date the document was last accessed.

@Adjust(time-date; y; m; d; h; m; s)

Adjusts a time-date by the negative or positive values of the remaining parameters.

@BusinessDays

Returns the number of business days in one or more date ranges.

@Created

Returns the time-date the document was created.

@Date(y; m; d)

Returns the date for year, month, and day.

@Date(y; m; d; h; m; s)

Returns the date for year, month, day, hour, minute, and second.

@Date(time-date)

Returns the date for a time-date.

@Day(time-date)

Extracts the day of the month from a time-date.

@Hour(time-date)

Extracts the hour from a time-date.

@Minute(time-date)

Extracts the minute from a time-date.

@Modified

Returns the time-date the document was last edited and saved.

@Month(time-date)

Extracts the month from a time-date as 1-12.

@Now

Returns the current time-date.

@Now([ServerTime])

Returns the current time-date for the server containing the current database.

@Now([ServerTime]; serverNames )

Returns the current time-date for specified servers.

@Second(time-date)

Extracts the seconds from a time-date.

@Time(h; m; s)

Returns the time for hour, minute, and second.

@Time(y; m; d; h; m; s)

Returns the time for year, month, day, hour, minute, and second.

@Time(time-date)

Returns the time for a time-date.

@Today

Returns today's date.

@Tomorrow

Returns tomorrow's date.

@Weekday(time-date)

Returns the day of the week for a time-date as 1-7 (Sunday through Saturday).

@Year(time-date)

Extracts the year from a time-date.

@Yesterday

Returns yesterday's date.

@Zone

Returns the time zone setting of the current computer.

@Zone

Returns the time zone setting for a time-date.