---
title: "Date-Time"
slug: "date-time"
updated: 2024-04-16T11:16:20Z
published: 2024-04-16T11:16:20Z
canonical: "help.mail-and-deploy.com/date-time"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.mail-and-deploy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Date-Time

### General

Values of type DateTime (alternativly named Date) can hold dates or date-times. A detailed explanation of the data-type can be found in the  Date Data-Type article of the Visual Basic .NET language documentation.

### Constants

Constant date-time values are written using the following syntax:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

#8/13/2002 12:14 PM#

You can also only specify a date:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

#8/13/2002#

To access the current date-time, you can use the following expression:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

DateTime.Now

To access the current date, you can use the following expression:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

Date.Today

### Calculations

#### AddDays

The AddDays function returns a date that has the provided number of days added or subtracted; the following expression returns the date for yesterday:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

Date.Today.AddDays(-1)

#### AddMonths

The AddMonths function returns a date that has the provided number of months added or subtracted; the following expression returns today minus 1 month:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

Date.Today.AddMonths(-1)

#### Formatting and Conversions

You can convert a date-time into a text representation by using the ToString function. This conversion process uses the culture settings of the user under which the expression is being executed or another culture provided by the context, e.g. culture-aware reports. If you use the following syntax, the date-time value will be converted to a textual representation using the default format of the applicable culture:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

<Date_Value>.ToString()

For instance, if you want to convert the current, local date-time into a textual representation using the default format of the applicable culture, you can use the following syntax:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

Date.Now.ToString()

However, the ToString function also allows you to supply a standard format string (🌐 Standard Date Time Format Strings Documentation) or a more flexible custom format string (🌐 Custom Date Time Format Strings Documentation). For instance, if you want to convert the current, local date-time into a textual representation that contains the 2-digit day, then a dot, then the 2-digit month, then a dot, and then the 4-digit year by using a custom format string, you can use the following syntax:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

Date.Now.ToString("dd.MM.yyyy")

If you want to include time-information in the textual representation (2-digit hour in 24-hour format, then ":", then 2-digit minute), then you can use the following syntax:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

Date.Now.ToString("dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm")

If you want to convert the current, local date into a textual representation according to the short date pattern of the current culture, you can use the following syntax:

          Mail & Deploy Expression

          

Date.Now.ToString("d")