A Date object describes a single date and time.
Date Type Commands
Date.now v1.1
Returns a Date object describing the current date & time. This value does not update, eg: the date and time are fixed at the point of creation.
Date.newWithText someText v2.1
Returns a Date object extracted from the given piece of text. The format of the text is not exact; parsing is lenient and will use system localization as needed. For example, in the USA you might see any of the following:
$date = Date.newWithText("12/25/2013")
$date = Date.newWithText("12/25/2013 10AM")
$date = Date.newWithText("December 25, 2013")
Generally, this should be used to parse dates from user input.
Date.newWithYearMonthDay year, month, day v2.1
Returns a Date object using the given date components. Time is set at 00:00:00.
Date.newWithYearMonthDayHourMinuteSecond year, month, day, hour, min, sec v2.1
Returns a Date object using the given date and time components.
Date.nameOfMonth monthNumber v1.1
Returns the localized name of the given month number, which should be between 1-12. The language used for the localization is the one currently used to run the application (eg: the language as set by system preferences and/or the Finder).
Date.nameOfWeekday weekdayNumber v1.1
Returns the localized name of the given weekday number, which should be between 1-7. The language used for the localization is the one currently used to run the application (eg: the language as set by system preferences and/or the Finder).
Date.zeroPad number v1.1
Pads the given number to be at least two digits in length, eg: the number 7 becomes ‘07’, the number 13 stays as 13.
Date.textDescribingSeconds seconds v2.0.5
Returns a string that describes the given number of seconds. The returned string will always be accurate to the nearest seconds, but may choose to represent the time in different units, eg:
Date.textDescribingSeconds(62) # returns "1 minute, 2 seconds"
Date Object Properties
.year v1.1
The year of the date, eg: 2008. Read-only.
.month v1.1
The month of the year, 1-12 inclusive. Read-only.
.day v1.1
The day of the month, 1-31 inclusive. Read-only.
.weekday v1.1
The day of the week, 1-7 inclusive. 1 means Monday, 2 for Tuesday, and so on until 7 for Sunday. Read-only.
.hour v1.1
The hour on the 24 hour clock, eg: 0-11 for AM hours, 12-23 for PM hours. Read-only.
.hour12 v1.1
The hour on the 12 hour clock, 1-12 inclusive. Read-only.
.am v1.1
true if time is between 00:00:00 and 11:59:59, otherwise @false. Read-only.
.pm v1.1
true if time is between 12:00:00 and 23:59:59, otherwise @false. Read-only.
.minute v1.1
The minute of the hour, 1-59 inclusive. Read-only.
.second v1.1
The second of the minute, 1-59 inclusive. Read-only.
.secondsSinceUnixEpoch v1.1
The total number of seconds that have elapsed since the Unix epoch (January 1st, 1970). Read-only.
Date Object Commands
.isBeforeDate otherDate v2.1
Returns @true if the date comes before (is older than) the given “otherDate” Date object, otherwise @false.
.isAfterDate otherDate v2.1
Returns @true if the date comes after (is newer than) the given “otherDate” Date object, otherwise @false.
.secondsSinceDate olderDate v2.0.5
Returns the difference in seconds between the two dates, which could be a fractional value. It is assumed that the given Date object is the older of the two; if not then the return value will be negative.
.dateByAddingSeconds seconds v2.0.5
Returns a new Date object that is the given number of seconds later in time. If the given number of seconds is negative, then this returns a prior date, ie: subtraction occurs.
Date Object Example
The following macro would insert the day and month into the active document in the format “April 01”:
$now = Date.now
$day = Date.zeroPad( $now.day ) # turn 1 into "01"
$month = Date.nameOfMonth( $now.month ) # turn 4 into "April"
Insert Text "$month $day"
The following code can be used to describe how long an operation took:
$startDate = Date.now
# do some work
$endDate = Date.now
$seconds = $endDate.secondsSinceDate($startDate)
$message = Date.textDescribingSeconds($seconds)
Prompt "The work took $message."
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