Adding Days and Comparing Dates

Here are a few helpful ways to get today's date in velocity and return the value as a string:

Today's date is:
  
$date.format('yyyyMMdd',$date)
  
$date = May 23, 2022, 4:41:12 PM                         
  
$date.long = May 23, 2022 at 4:41:12 PM EDT                    
  
$date.medium_time = 4:41:12 PM            
  
$date.full_date = Monday, May 23, 2022               
  
$date.get('default','short') = May 23, 2022, 4:41 PM  
  
$date.get('yyyy-M-d H:m:s') = 2022-5-23 16:41:12  

Adding/subtracting dates

This code gets a java.util.Calendar and uses it to calculate 24 hours from now:

My date: $date

## Get a java Calendar
#set($x = $date.calendar)

## Add 24 hours (hours=int code 10 - see list below)
$x.add(10,24)

## Show result
My new date :$x.time

Adding and Setting dates

You can also set dates and time with the calendar object.  For example, to get a date at midnight one year ago:

My date: $date

## Get a java Calendar
#set($x = $date.calendar)

## Subtract 1 year (year=int code 1 - see list below)
$x.add(1,-1)


## Set the hours, minutes and seconds to 0
$x.set(10,0) ## hours
$x.set(12,0) ## minutes
$x.set(13,0) ## seconds
## Show result in SQL format - 
$date.format('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss',$x.time)

Here are a list of the constants available in the java calendar that you can use to add or subtract or set (we used 10 in the example above). All constants are declared as public static final int.

java.util.Calendar
ALL_STYLES	0
AM	0
AM_PM	9
APRIL	3
AUGUST	7
DATE	5
DAY_OF_MONTH	5
DAY_OF_WEEK	7
DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH	8
DAY_OF_YEAR	6
DECEMBER	11
DST_OFFSET	16
ERA	0
FEBRUARY	1
FIELD_COUNT	17
FRIDAY	6
HOUR	10
HOUR_OF_DAY	11
JANUARY	0
JULY	6
JUNE	5
LONG	2
MARCH	2
MAY	4
MILLISECOND	14
MINUTE	12
MONDAY	2
MONTH	2
NOVEMBER	10
OCTOBER	9
PM	1
SATURDAY	7
SECOND	13
SEPTEMBER	8
SHORT	1
SUNDAY	1
THURSDAY	5
TUESDAY	3
UNDECIMBER	12
WEDNESDAY	4
WEEK_OF_MONTH	4
WEEK_OF_YEAR	3
YEAR	1
ZONE_OFFSET	15

To compare date strings they first must be converted to a Calendar and then use the compareTo method:

  ##Converting string date to Calendar
  #set($nowDate=$date.toCalendar($date))
  
  ##We compare to today's date
  #if($calDate.compareTo($date)==0)
   Publish Date is today
   
  #elseif($calDate.compareTo($date)>0)
    Publish Date is in the future
    
  #else
    Publish Date is in the past
  #end

The examples above are put together here:

  ##Add Days to a Date: Sets a start Date 7 days before today. You can do plus or minus days.
  #set($startDate = $date.format('yyyyMMdd', $UtilMethods.addDays($date.date, -7)))
   <p>This is the start date string: $startDate</p>
  
  ##This returns a string with the numbers in today's date - Ex: "20120823" (Aug 23, 2012)
  #set($today = $date.format('yyyyMMdd',$date))
  
   <p>This is today's date string: $today</p>
  
  ##Converting string date to Calendar
  #set($calDate=$date.toCalendar($con.publishedDate))
  #set($nowDate=$date.toCalendar($date))
  
  ##We compare to today's date
  #if($calDate.compareTo($nowDate)==0)
    Publish Date is today
    
  #elseif($calDate.compareTo($nowDate)>0)
    Publish Date is in the future
    
  #else
    Publish Date is in the past
  #end