Date Fields

The Date field type category includes the five date field types pictured in the image below. These date field types are primarily used to track any dates and times associated with your data. 

We will define each of these five date field types within this article.

Date

Date Fields hold values that represent a specified month, day, and year. 

Sample Date Field:

At default, date formatting is set to MM/dd/yyyy (02/15/2010). If you wish to change your default date formatting, you can do so within the Settings tab of your app's navigation bar > Layout & Format Settings tab > Date Format setting.

Creating a date field

To add a new date field to your data table, click on the Date field type category on the Add Field menu and select the date field type from the drop-down list.

When creating a date field, there are several settings you can customize such as those highlighted in the image below.

1. Name- this is where you can name your date field. For instance, "Job Date" or "Deadline".
   
   
2. Description- this is where you can optionally provide a brief description of this field for your own reference.  
   
   
3. Default Form Value- this is where you can set a default date value to automatically populate within a form. At default, the Default Form Value is set to None, meaning no default date value will automatically populate within forms. 
   
   
   
   If you choose to set a Default Form Value, you can select the Current Date or a Specific Date. For instance, if you set the Default Form Value to a specific date of 02/01/2020, forms will automatically populate as such:
   
   

Time 

Time Fields store values that represent a specified hour and minute of a day.

Sample Time Field:

At default, time formatting is set to hh:mm a (09:36 PM). If you wish to change this default time formatting, you can do so within the Settings tab of your app's navigation bar > Layout & Format Settings tab > Time Format setting.

Creating a time field

To add a new time field to your data table, click on the Date field type category on the Add Field menu and select the time field type from the drop-down list.

When creating a time field, there are several settings you can customize such as those highlighted in the image below.

1. Name- this is where you can name your time field. For instance, "Clock Out Time" or "Meeting Time".
   
   
2. Description- this is where you can optionally provide a brief description of this field for your own reference.  
   
   
3. Default Form Value- this is where you can set a default time value to automatically populate within a form. At default, the Default Form Value is set to None, meaning no default time value will automatically populate within forms. 
   
   
   
   If you choose to set a Default Form Value, you can select the Current Time or a Specific Time. For instance, if you set the Default Form Value to a specific time of 09:00 AM, forms will automatically populate as such:
   
   

Date & Time

Date/Time Fields store values that represent a specific date (day, month, year) and time (hour, minute, AM/PM when applicable). 

Sample Date/Time Field:

Creating a date/time field

To add a new date/time field to your data table, click on the Date field type category on the Add Field menu and select the date/time field type from the drop-down list.

When creating a date/time field, there are several settings you can customize such as those highlighted in the image below.

1. Name- this is where you can name your date/time field. For instance, "Note Created" or "Job Date and Time".
   
   
2. Description- this is where you can optionally provide a brief description of this field for your own reference.  
   
   
3. Default Form Value- this is where you can set a default date/time value to automatically populate within a form. At default, the Default Form Value is set to None, meaning no default date/time value will automatically populate within forms. 
   
   
   
   If you choose to set a Default Form Value, you can select the Current Date/Time or a Specific Date/Time. For instance, if you set the Default Form Value to a specific date/time of 02/01/2020 12:00 PM, forms will automatically populate as such:
   
   

Date Formula

Date Formula Fields contain automatically generated values based on a defined formula. A Date Formula field can reference other date field type values within its formula.

Sample Date Formula Field:

Creating a date formula field

To add a new date formula field to your data table, click on the Date field type category on the Add Field menu and select the date formula field type from the drop-down list.

When creating a Date Formula field, there are several settings you can customize such as those highlighted in the image below.

1. Name- this is where you can name your date formula field. For instance, "Total Time" or Total Hours".
   
   
2. Description- this is where you can optionally provide a brief description of this field for your own reference.  
   
   
3. Display Output- this is where you can select the display output for your date formula field. For instance, if you are creating a date formula field to track the total hours of each employee's work day, you would choose Hour as the display output.
   
   
4. Date Formula- this is where you define your date formula by adding fields, operations, and custom text and date values.

For instance, say you have an Hours data table with a Clock In date/time field, a Clock Out date/time field, and a connection field to your employees. Your employees are clocking in and out every day and you would now like to track the Total Hours each employee is working each day. You can accomplish this by creating a Date Formula field titled Total Hours. 

To create this date formula field, click on the Date category on the Add Field Menu within your Hours data table and select the Date Formula field type. 

Name your date formula "Total Hours" and select "Hour" as the Display Output with an hour format of "2.88 Hours" to display results as a numeric value representation of each employee's total hours worked each day (For instance, 8.75 Hours). You can then create your date formula by clicking on the +Add Field drop-down arrow and clicking on the Clock Out field to add this field to your formula. The reason why you are adding the Clock Out field first to your formula is because Total Hours = Clock Out (End Time) - Clock In (Start Time).

As you can see, the Clock Out field has been added to your formula. You can then continue adding the remainder of your date formula by clicking on the - (minus) operator and then clicking on the +Add Field drop-down arrow once again to add the Clock In field. You can then click Save to save your new Total Hours date formula field.

The image below displays the results of your date formula field in action. As you can see, each employee's Clock In and Clock Out date/time fields are calculated into a new date formula field displaying his/her's total daily hours.

Display Outputs

As mentioned above, date formulas can be displayed as Day, Hour, Second, and Date outputs. For instance, the above example demonstrated a date formula displayed as an Hour output. Let's explore each of the display output options in greater detail.

Example #1: Say you have two fields including a date/time field called "Day 1" and a date/time field called "Day 2".

If you were to create three different date formulas with the same date formula of "Day 2 - Day 1" configured for each formula but a different display output chosen each time, your results for Day, Hour, and Second display outputs would display as follows: 

Example #2: For this example we will demonstrate the Date display output and use a custom value within our date formula.

When adding a custom value, you may define the value or use a numeric field. Additionally, you may define the format representing the increment of time that is to be used for the custom value.

For example, say you have a date/time field called "Day 1" and you would like to create a date formula to add 5 days to your Day 1 field value and display your results as a Date output. You can accomplish this by creating a new date formula with a Date display output and entering a date formula of Field "Day 1" + Custom Value of "5" with a Time Format of "Day" as illustrated in the GIF below.

Below are the results of this date formula field which adds 5 days to our Day 1 field and displays as a Date output.

Date Range

Date Range Fields enable you to set a duration of time with a start and end value. 

The start and end values, similar to Date/Time Fields, hold a date, hour, and minute value. 

Sample Date Range Field:

Creating a date range field

To add a new date range field to your data table, click on the Date field type category on the Add Field menu and select the date range field type from the drop-down list.

When creating a Date Range field, there are several settings you can customize such as those highlighted in the image below.

1. Name- this is where you can name your Date Range field. For instance, "Vacation Request" or "Appointment Time".
   
   
2. Description- this is where you can optionally provide a brief description of this field for your own reference. 
   
   
3. End Date/Time Format- this is where you can choose the formatting for how the end date and time will be entered on a form component. While the Start Date Format will always display as a date/time field on forms, you have the option to prompt your users to select an End Date/Time Format of either a Date/Time field, Time Field, or Duration Field.
   
   At default, end date/time formatting is set to show a Date/Time field. on forms This means that on a form component, users will be prompted to choose an end date and time with a date/time field format. Keeping the End Date/Time Format as the default Date/Time field formatting is useful for when you would like to prompt your users to select a date and time as the end date on a form. For instance, if you have an Employee Management application where users can request time off, you would choose the default date/time field as the end date/time format to enable users to select a date and time for their last vacation day. 
   
   
   
   There may be circumstances when you want to prompt your users to select a Duration field as their end date/time on a form. This can be useful in circumstances when the end date is the same and the start date and you want to prompt users to select a specific time duration as the end date/time. For instance, if you have an appointment scheduler application to coordinate appointments for a doctor's office, you would choose the Duration field as the end date/time format to enable employees/schedulers to schedule appointments with specific time duration such as 30 minute appointments or 1 hour appointments.
   
   
   
   
   Alternatively, there may be circumstances when you want to prompt your users to select a Time field as their end date/time on a form. This can be useful in circumstances where the end date is the same date as the start date and you want to prompt users to select a specific time as the end date/time. For instance, if you have an Event Management application and would like to schedule events that are contracted to end at specific times on the event day, you would choose the Time field end date/time format to display a date/time field as the start date and only a time field as the end date.
   
   
   
   

   End Date/Time Format settings will only affect how end date/time fields are entered on a form. This setting does not affect how end date/time fields saved within a form will be displayed when viewed within other components. When displayed, both start and end values will be displayed as date/time fields.

 

Countdown and Age

With any date/time field,  you are able to further customize the output format and display date/time values as an Age or as a Countdown via a Stopwatch/Timer. Click here to learn more about further customizing date/time field outputs.