Date and Times functions in VBScript

VBScript supports various date and time functions. In this section you will learn all supported date and time function.

Now Function
Now Function returns the current system date along with the time. The following example uses the Now function to show the message for the current date and time.

Dim currentDateTime
currentDateTime = Now
MsgBox "Current date and time is " & currentDateTime

Date Function
Date Function returns the current system date. The following example uses the Date function to show the message for the today’s date.

Dim todayDate
todayDate = Date
MsgBox "Today date is " & todayDate

Time Function

Time Function returns the current system date.

Day Function
Day Function returns a integer number of the current day in the month between 1 and 31.

The following example shows the day of the month from a specified date.

Dim numDay
numDay = Day("May 10, 2012")
MsgBox numDay

To get the day number of the today’s date use the following example:

Dim numDay
numDay = Day(Date)
MsgBox numDay

Month Function
Month function will return a integer number of month in the specified date in between 1 to 12.

Dim numMonth
numMonth = Month(Now)
MsgBox numMonth

Year Function
Year function returns the whole value of the year. Suppose the if you a date that is ‘May 10, 2012’ than year function will return the ‘2012’.

Dim numYear
numYear = Year(Now)
MsgBox numYear

DateAdd Function

DateAdd function adds the given time interval to the specified date. You can use the DateAdd fucntion as :

DateAdd(timeinterval, number, date)

Where timeinterval is the string value that is the interval you want to add. You can use the following string expression to add various time interval:

  • yyyy – Add Year
  • q – Add Quarter
  • m – Add Month
  • y – Add Day of year
  • d – Add Day
  • w – Add Weekday
  • ww – Add Week of year
  • h – Add Hour
  • n – Add Minute
  • s – Add Second

number is the numeric value of interval you want to add and date is date value to which interval is added.

Example: if you want to add 5 days from now you can write code as:

Dim dt
dt = DateAdd("d",5,Now())
MsgBox dt

DateDiff Function

You can calculate the difference of the two dates in number of specified interval. You can use the DateDiff() function as:

DateDiff(interval, date1, date2 [,firstdayofweek] [,firstweekofyear])

interval parameter requires the string expression that is the interval you want to use to calculate the differences between dates. The following is the list of string expressions for the interval parameter:

  • yyyy – Add Year
  • q – Add Quarter
  • m – Add Month
  • y – Add Day of year
  • d – Add Day
  • w – Add Weekday
  • ww – Add Week of year
  • h – Add Hour
  • n – Add Minute
  • s – Add Second

date1 and date2 are the two dates you want to use in the calculation of the difference.
There are two optional parameters one is firstdayofweek that specifies the day of the week. If not specified, Sunday is assumed and another is firstweekofyear that specifies the first week of the year. If not specified, the first week is assumed to be the week in which January 1 occurs.

DatePart Function

The DatePart function gives the specified part of a given date and can be used like as:

DatePart(interval,date[,firstdayofweek][,firstweekofyear])

Where interval is the string expression that you want to get the number of the interval and date is the actual date. There are two optional parameters one is firstdayofweek that specifies the day of the week. If not specified, Sunday is assumed and another is firstweekofyear that specifies the first week of the year. If not specified, the first week is assumed to be the week in which January 1 occurs.

firstdayofweek
  • 0 = vbUseSystemDayOfWeek
  • 1 = vbSunday – Sunday (default)
  • 2 = vbMonday – Monday
  • 3 = vbTuesday – Tuesday
  • 4 = vbWednesday – Wednesday
  • 5 = vbThursday – Thursday
  • 6 = vbFriday – Friday
  • 7 = vbSaturday – Saturday
firstweekofyear
  • 0 = vbUseSystem – Use National Language Support (NLS) API setting
  • 1 = vbFirstJan1 – Start with the week in which January 1 occurs (default)
  • 2 = vbFirstFourDays – Start with the week that has at least four days in the new year
  • 3 = vbFirstFullWeek – Start with the first full week of the new year
Dim dt
dt = CDate("2010-02-16")
Dim Quarter, Day, Year
Quarter    = DatePart("q", dt)
Day  = DatePart("d", dt)
Year = DatePart("yyyy", dt)

DateSerial Function
DateSerial function returns a Variant of subtype Date for a specified year, month, and day and can be used as :

DateSerial(year, month, day)

See the following example:

Dim dt
dt = DateSerial(1990, 7, 9)   ' Returns July 9, 1990.
MsgBox dt

DateValue Function
DateValue function returns a Variant of subtype Date and can be used as:
DateValue(date)

TimeValue Function
TimeValue function returns a Variant of subtype Date containing the time and can be used as:
TimeValue(time)

FormatDateTime Function

The FormatDateTime function returns the date or time according to given argument.

You can use the The FormatDateTime function as:
FormatDateTime(date,format)
where format specifies the date or time format to use:

0 or vbGeneralDate -for the format in case of date: mm/dd/yy and for the time: hh:mm:ss PM/AM.
1 or vbLongDate – for the format weekday, monthname, year
2 or vbShortDate – for the format: mm/dd/yy
3 or vbLongTime – for the format hh:mm:ss PM/AM
4 or vbShortTime -for the format hh:mm