Date
A date variable is a representation of a Date or a Date and Time in the UTC timezone
Construction
You can construct a date using a constructor function
// Creates a new date variable with the current date with no time
today = Date()
// Creates a new date variable for the 8th October 2020
date = Date("2020-10-08")
// Creates a new date variable for the 8th October 2020 at 12:46
datetime = Date("2020-10-08T12:46:00")
/**
Creates a new date variable using the start of the delivery period
for October 2020 (2020M10) i.e. 1st October 2020
**/
datepc = Date("2020M10")
// Creates a new date variable for the 8th October 2020 using a different format
df = Date("06/10/2020", "dd/MM/yyyy")
You can also use the [date active variable](https://opendatadsl.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOCUMENTAT/pages/32971/Date+Service) to construct a date, e.g.
// Creates a new date variable for the next Monday (or today if today is Monday)
dav = ${date:"monday"}
Properties
A date has the following properties:
| Name | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| dow | The name of the day of the week, e.g. Monday | Scalar(String) |
| day | The day of the month | Scalar(Integer) |
| month | The month of the year (1-12) | Scalar(Integer) |
| monthName | The name of the month, e.g. January | Scalar(String) |
| year | The year | Scalar(Integer) |
| hour | The hour of the day (0-23) | Scalar(Integer) |
| minute | The minute of the hour (0-59) | Scalar(Integer) |
| second | The second of the minute (0-59) | Scalar(Integer) |
Example usage of properties:
// Creates a new date variable for the 8th October 2020 at 12:46
datetime = Date("2020-10-08T12:46:00")
print datetime.hour
print datetime.minute
print datetime.second
Methods
The date variable has the following methods:
| Name | Description | Returns |
|---|---|---|
| next() | Returns the next calendar day after this one | Date |
| next(Calendar) | Returns the next day after this one using the supplied calendar | Date |
| previous() | Returns the previous calendar day before this one | Date |
| previous(Calendar) | Returns the previous day before this one using the calendar | Date |
| startOfMonth() | Returns a new Date as the start of the month | Date |
| startOfMonth(Calendar) | Returns a new Date as the start of the month using the supplied calendar | Date |
| endOfMonth() | Returns a new Date as the end of the month | Date |
| endOfMonth(Calendar) | Returns a new Date as the end of the month using the supplied calendar | Date |
| dayOfMonth(day) | Returns a new Date as the specific day of the month | Date |
| dayOfMonth(day, Calendar) | Returns a new Date as the specific day of the month using the supplied calendar | Date |
| isHoliday(Calendar) | Returns true is this date is a holiday in the supplied calendar | Scalar(Boolean) |
Example using methods:
// Create a date for the 5th October 2020
date5oct = Date("2020-10-05")
// Get the previous calendar day
date4oct = date5oct.previous()
/**
Checks if the 4th October 2020 is a holiday according to the
business (Monday to Friday) calendar
**/
print date4oct.isHoliday("business")
// Prints out the previous date according to the business calendar
print date5oct.previous("business")
Operations
Dates can be used in mathematical operations, for example subtracting one date from another produces a Duration variable. Here are a list of valid date operations:
Subtraction
Subtracting one date from another creates a duration, e.g.
d1 = Date("2020-06-08")
d2 = ${date:"2020-06-09"}
// Test for date subtraction
dur1D = d2 - d1
assertEquals("1D", dur1D)
Subtracting a number from a date produces a new date with that number of days subtracted, e.g.
// Test for date and numeric subtraction
datesub1 = Date("2020-10-08") - 1
assertEquals("2020-10-07T00:00:00", datesub1)
Subtracting a duration from a date produces a new date with the duration subtracted from it, e.g.
// Test for date and duration subtraction
datesub2 = Date("2020-10-08") - 1M1D
assertEquals("2020-09-07T00:00:00", datesub2)
Addition
Adding a duration to a date creates a new date, e.g.
// Test for date and duration addition
datedur = Date("2020-10-08") + 1D
assertEquals("2020-10-09T00:00:00", datedur)
Adding a number to a date creates a new date with that number of days added, e.g.
// Test for date and numeric addition
datenum = Date("2020-10-08") + 5
assertEquals("2020-10-13T00:00:00", datenum)
More Examples
Start of the month
//#region Set start of month
d1 = Date("2023-10-15")
d2 = d1.startOfMonth()
print d2
d1 = Date("2023-10-15")
d2 = d1.startOfMonth("BUSINESS")
print d2
//#endregion
End of the month
//#region Set end of month
d1 = Date("2024-03-15")
d2 = d1.endOfMonth()
print d2
d1 = Date("2024-03-15")
d2 = d1.endOfMonth("BUSINESS")
print d2
//#endregion
Day of the month
//#region Day of the month
d1 = Date("2024-05-15")
d2 = d1.dayOfMonth(11)
print d2
d1 = Date("2024-05-15")
d2 = d1.dayOfMonth(11, "BUSINESS")
print d2
//#endregion