Formula Date Time Tipsheet
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Using Date and DateTime in
Formulas
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Last updated May
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CONTENTS
Using Date DateTime and Time Values in Formulas
Sample Date Formulas
USING DATE DATETIME AND TIME VALUES IN FORMULAS
Date formulas are useful for managing payment deadlines contract ages or any other features of
your organization that are time or date dependent
EDITIONS
Two data types are used for working with dates Date and DateTime One data type Time is
independent of the date for tracking time such as business hours Most values that are used when
working with dates are of the Date data type which store the year month and day Some fields
such as CreatedDate are DateTime fields meaning they not only store a date value but also
a time value stored in GMT but displayed in the users time zone Date DateTime and Time fields
are formatted in the users locale when viewed in reports and record detail pages A Time values
precision is in milliseconds A DateTime values precision is in seconds
Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
Available in All Editions
You can use operations like addition and subtraction on Date DateTime and TIme values to calculate a future date or elapsed time
between two dates or times If you subtract one date from another for example the resulting value will be the difference between the
two initial values in days Number data type The same operation between two DateTime values returns a decimal value indicating
the difference in number of days hours and minutes The same operation between two Time values returns millisecond
For example if the difference between two DateTime values is that means the two values are separated by five days hours
of a day and minutes of a day You can also add numeric values to Dates and DateTimes For example the operation TODAY
returns three days after todays date For more information and examples of working with dates see the list of Sample Date
Formulas
Throughout the examples the variables date and datetime are used in place of actual Date and DateTime fields or values
Keep in mind that complex date functions tend to compile to a larger size than text or number formula functions so you might run into
issues with formula compile size See Tips for Reducing Formula Size for help with this problem
TODAY NOW and TIMENOW
The TODAY function returns the current day month and year as a Date data type This function is useful for formulas where you are
concerned with how many days have passed since a previous date the date of a certain number of days in the future or if you just want
to display the current date
The NOW function returns the DateTime value of the current moment Its useful when you are concerned with specific times of day
as well as the date
The TIMENOW function returns a value in GMT representing the current time without the date Use this function instead of the
NOW function if you want the current hour minute seconds or milliseconds This value is useful for tracking time like work shifts or
elapsed time
For details on how to convert between Date values and DateTime values see Converting Between DateTime and Date
The DATE Function
The DATE function returns a Date value given a year month and day Numerical YMD values and the YEAR MONTH and
DAY functions are valid parameters for DATE For example DATE returns June Similarly DATE
YEAR TODAY MONTH TODAY returns the Date value of the first day three months from today in the
current year assuming the date is valid for example the month falls between and
Using Date DateTime and Time Values in Formulas
If the inputted YMD values result in an invalid date the DATE function returns an error so error checking is an important part of
working with Date values You can read about methods for handling invalid dates in Sample Date Formulas
Converting Between DateTime and Date
Date and DateTime arent interchangeable data types so when you want to perform operations between Date and DateTime values
you need to convert the values so they are both the same type Some functions such as YEAR MONTH and DAY also only
work on Date values so DateTime values must be converted first
Use the DATEVALUE datetime function to return the Date value of a DateTime For example to get the year from a
DateTime use YEAR DATEVALUE datetime
You can convert a Date value to a DateTime using the DATETIMEVALUE date function The time will be set to am in
Greenwich Mean Time GMT and then converted to the time zone of the user viewing the record when its displayed For a user located
in San Francisco DATETIMEVALUE TODAY returns pm on the previous day during Daylight Saving Time rather than
am of the current day See A Note About DateTime and Time Zones for more information
Converting Between DateTime and Time
The TIMEVALUE function returns a Time data type value in HHMMSSMS hoursminutessecondsmilliseconds format using a
hour clock Numerical HMSMS values and the HOUR MINUTE SECONDS and MILLISECONDS functions are
valid parameters for TIMEVALUE
Use the TIMEVALUEvalue function to return the Time value of a DateTime type text merge field or expression For example
extract the time from a ClosedDate DateTime value with TIMEVALUEClosedDate
Converting Between Date and Text
If you want to include a date as part of a string wrap the Date value in the TEXT function to convert it to text For example if you
want to return todays date as text use
Todays date is TEXT TODAY
This returns the date in the format YYYYMMDD rather than in the localedependent format You can change the format by extracting
the day month and year from the date first and then recombining them in the format you want For example
Todays date is TEXT MONTH date TEXT DAY date TEXT YEAR
date
You can also convert text to a Date so you can use the string value with your other Date fields and formulas Youll want your text to be
formatted as YYYYMMDD Use this formula to return the Date value
DATEVALUE YYYYMMDD
Converting Between DateTime and Text
You can include DateTime values in a string using the TEXT function but you need to be careful of time zones For example
consider this formula
The current date and time is TEXT NOW
Using Date DateTime and Time Values in Formulas
In this formula NOW is offset to GMT Normally NOW would be converted to the users time zone when viewed but because its
been converted to text the conversion wont happen So if you execute this formula on August st at PM in San Francisco time
GMT the result is The current date and time is Z
When you convert a DateTime to text a Z is included at the end to indicate GMT TEXT datetime returns Z if the field is
blank So if the DateTime value youre working with might be blank check for this before converting to text
IF
ISBLANK datetime
TEXT datetime
To convert a string to a DateTime value use DATETIMEVALUE passing in a string in the format YYYYMMDD HHMMSS This
method returns the DateTime value in GMT
Converting Between Time and Text
If you want to include time as part of a string wrap the Time value in the TEXT function to convert it to text For example if you
want to return the current time as text use
The time is TEXT TIMENOW
This function returns the time in the format HHMMSSMS
You can also convert text to a Time data type so you can use the string value with your other Time fields and formulas Format your text
as HHMMSSMS on a hour clock Use the TIMEVALUE function
TIMEVALUE
A Note About DateTime and Time Zones
Date and DateTime values are stored in GMT When a record is saved field values are adjusted from the users time zone to GMT and
then adjusted back to the viewers time zone when displayed in record detail pages and reports With Date conversions this doesnt
pose a problem since converting a DateTime to a Date results in the same Date value
When working with DateTime fields and values however the conversion is always done in GMT not the users time zone Subtracting
a standard DateTime field from another isnt a problem because both fields are in the same time zone When one of the values in the
calculation is a conversion from a Text or Date value to a DateTime value however the results are different
Lets say a San Francisco user enters a value of AM on August in a custom DateTime field called DateTimec This
value is stored as Z because the time difference in Pacific Daylight Time is GMT At pm PDT on August
st the user views the record and the following formula is run
DateTimec NOW
In the calculation NOW is Z and then subtracted from Z to return the expected result of
hours
Suppose that instead of NOW the formula converts the string to a DateTime value
DateTimec DATETIMEVALUE
In this case DATETIMEVALUE is Z and returns a result of or
hours
Using Date DateTime and Time Values in Formulas
Theres no way to determine a users time zone in a formula If all of your users are in the same time zone you can adjust the time zone
difference by adding or subtracting the time difference between the users time zone and GMT to your converted values However since
time zones can be affected by Daylight Saving Time and the start and end dates for DST are different each year this is difficult to manage
in a formula We recommend using Apex for transactions that require converting between DateTime values and Text or Date values
SAMPLE DATE FORMULAS
Finding the Day Month or Year from a Date
EDITIONS
Use the functions DAY date MONTH date and YEAR date to return their
respective numerical values Replace date with a value of type Date eg TODAY
Available in both Salesforce
Classic and Lightning
Experience
To use these functions with DateTime values first convert them to a date with the DATEVALUE
function For example DAY DATEVALUE datetime
Available in All Editions
Finding Out if a Year Is a Leap Year
This formula determines whether or not a year is a leap year A year is only a leap year if its divisible by or if its divisible by four but
NOT by
OR
MOD YEAR date
AND
MOD YEAR date
MOD YEAR date
Finding Which Quarter a Date Is In
For standard quarters you can determine which quarter a date falls in using this formula This formula returns the number of the quarter
in which date falls by dividing the current month by three the number of months in each quarter and taking the ceiling
CEILING MONTH date
The formula for shifted quarters is similar but shifts the month of the date by the number of months between January and the first
quarter of the fiscal year The example below illustrates how you can find a dates quarter if Q starts in February instead of January
CEILING MONTH date
If you want to check whether a date is in the current quarter add a check to compare the dates year and quarter with TODAYs year
and quarter
AND
CEILING MONTH date CEILING MONTH TODAY
YEAR date YEAR TODAY
Sample Date Formulas
Finding the Week of the Year a Date Is In
To find the number of a dates week of the year use this formula
IF
CEILING date DATE YEAR date
CEILING date DATE YEAR date
You can find the current week by determining how many days there have been in the current year and dividing that value by The
IF statement ensures that the week number the formula returns doesnt exceed So if the given date is December of the given
year the formula returns even though its more than weeks after the week of January
Finding Whether Two Dates Are in the Same Month
To determine whether two Dates fall in the same month say for a validation rule to determine whether an opportunity Close Date is in
the current month use this formula
AND
MONTH date MONTH date
YEAR date YEAR date
Finding the Last Day of the Month
The easiest way to find the last day of a month is to find the first day of the next month and subtract a day
IF
MONTH date
DATE YEAR date
DATE YEAR date MONTH date
Displaying the Month as a String Instead of a Number
To return the month as a text string instead of a number use
CASE
MONTH date
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
Sample Date Formulas
October
November
December
If your organization uses multiple languages you can replace the names of the month with a custom label
CASE
MONTH date
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
LabelMonthofYear
Finding and Displaying the Day of the Week From a Date
To find the day of the week from a Date value use a known Sunday eg January and subtract it from the date eg TODAY
to get the difference in days The MOD function finds the remainder of this result when divided by to give the numerical value of
the day of the week between Sunday and Saturday The formula below finds the result and then returns the text name of that
day
CASE
MOD date DATE
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Note that this formula only works for dates after If youre working with older dates use the same process with any Sunday
prior to your earliest date eg
You can also adjust this formula if your week starts on a different day For example if your week starts on Monday you can use January
in your condition The new formula looks like this
CASE
MOD date DATE
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Sample Date Formulas
Saturday
Sunday
Like the formula for getting the name of the month if your organization uses multiple languages you can replace the names of the day
of the week with a variable like LabelDayofWeek etc
Finding the Next Day of the Week After a Date
To find the date of the next occurrence of a particular day of the week following a given Date get the difference in the number of days
of the week between a date and a dayofweek a number where Sunday and Saturday By adding this difference to
the current date youll find the date of the dayofweek The IF statement in this formula handles cases where the
dayofweek is prior to the day of the week of the date value eg date is a Thursday and dayofweek is a Monday by
adding to the difference
date dayofweek MOD date DATE
IF
MOD date DATE dayofweek
You can substitute either a constant or another field in for the dayofweek value based on your needs
Finding the Number of Days Between Two Dates
To find the number of days between two dates date and date subtract the earlier date from the later date date
date
You can alter this slightly if you want to determine a date a certain number of days in the past For example say you want a formula to
return true if some date field is more than days prior to the current date and false otherwise This formula does just that
TODAY date
Finding the Number of Business Days Between Two Dates
Calculating how many business days passed between two dates is slightly more complex than calculating total elapsed days The basic
strategy is to choose a reference Monday from the past and find out how many full weeks and any additional portion of a week have
passed between the reference date and the date youre examining These values are multiplied by five for a fiveday work week and
then the difference between them is taken to calculate business days
FLOOR
FLOOR
date DATE MIN MOD date DATE
date DATE MIN MOD date DATE
In this formula date is the more recent date and date is the earlier date If your work week runs shorter or longer than five
days replace all fives in the formula with the length of your week
Sample Date Formulas
Adding Days Months and Years to a Date
If you want to add a certain number of days to a date add that number to the date directly For example to add five days to a date the
formula is date
Adding years to a date is fairly simple but you do need to check that the future date is valid That is adding five years to February a
leap year results in an invalid date The following formula adds numyears to date by checking if the date is February and if
the future date is not in a leap year If these conditions hold true the formula returns March in the future year Otherwise the formula
sets the Date to the same month and day numyears in the future
IF
AND
MONTH date
DAY date
NOT
OR
MOD YEAR date
AND
MOD YEAR date
MOD YEAR date
DATE YEAR date numyears
DATE YEAR date numyears MONTH date DAY date
Adding months to a date is slightly more complicated as months vary in length and the cycle of months restart with each year Therefore
a valid day in one month January might not be valid in another month February A simple solution is to approximate each
months length as days
date Numbermonths
While this formula is a good estimate it doesnt return an exact date For example if you add two months to April using this method
the formula will return June instead of June Returning an exact date depends on your organizations preference For example
when you add one month to January should it return February the last day of the next month or March days after January
This formula does the following
Returns March if the future month is a February and the day is greater than This portion of the formula performs the same for
both leap and nonleap years
Returns the first day of the next month if the future month is April June September or November and the day is greater than
Otherwise it returns the correct date in the future month
This example formula adds two months to a given date You can modify the conditions on this formula if you prefer different behaviors
for dates at the end of the month
DATE
YEAR date FLOOR MONTH date
MOD MONTH date
IF DAY date CASE MOD MONTH date
Sample Date Formulas
IF DAY date CASE MOD MONTH date
DAY date
If youre using these formulas for expiration dates you might want to subtract a day from the return value to make sure that some action
is completed before the calculated date
Adding Business Days to a Date
This formula finds three business days from a given date
CASE
MOD date
date
date
date
date
date
DATE
This formula finds the day of the week of the date field value If the date is a Wednesday Thursday or Friday the formula adds five
calendar days two weekend days three weekdays to the date to account for the weekend If date is a Saturday you need four
additional calendar days For any other day of the week Sunday Tuesday simply add three days You can easily modify this formula
to add more or less business days The tip for getting the day of the week might be useful if you need to adjust this formula
Finding the Hour Minute or Second from a DateTime
To get the hour minute and second from a DateTime field as a numerical value use the following formulas where TZoffset is the
difference between the users time zone and GMT For hour in hour format
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
For hour in hour format
IF
OR
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
Sample Date Formulas
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
IF
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
For minutes
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
For seconds
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
And to get AM or PM as a string use
IF
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
AM
PM
To return the time as a string in HHMMSS APM format use the following formula
IF
OR
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
TEXT VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
IF
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
IF
VALUE MID TEXT datetime TZoffset
AM
PM
When working with time in formula fields you need to consider the time difference between your organization and GMT See A Note
About DateTime and Time Zones on page for help understanding the time zone offset used in this formula