Date/time values are one of the types of Field values.

When you configure a field to have a date/time value, Dabble will only allow the field to contain a calendar date or range of dates. The date may include a time of day, but does not require it (and a time with no date will be interpreted as the current date.)

Note: If you wish to measure an amount of time with no specific date, use a duration value.

The main purpose of date/time values is to allow you create a Calendar view where your data is shown on a monthly, weekly or daily calendar according to a particular field. The option to switch to calendar view will be available whenever you are looking at entries that have one or more date/time fields.

You can also create Filters that deal mathematically with dates, e.g. “Date: >= Today” or “Birthday: < 1980”. See Value filters for more detail.

You can change a field to have a date/time value using the Field configuration. When you do this, existing data in the field will be converted. If text cannot be interpreted as a valid date, it will be marked as Invalid data. All future data entered into the field will also be treated as a date.

In the Field configuration there is one option you can change for date/time value fields. You can specify a default date for when entries are created with this field. This only applies to the future: existing entries will not have their values changed. You can use a particular date/time or any of the natural language that Dabble DB understands.

Dabble will try to interpret any text that looks like a date or a date range. The system understands most English-language and numeric shorthand, as well as some words like “today”, “tomorrow” and “next week”. If you enter a date using shorthand or using a word like “today”, Dabble will process it so that the next time you see it (e.g., after you have saved), it will be written in a standard, consistent format.

When dates are entered numerically (e.g. 1/10/06) there is the potential for confusion over whether the date is month/day/year or day/month/year format. The default is month/day/year, but you can specify a different arrangement for your account in the database locale settings.

• January 15, 2006
• Jan 15 2006
• 15 Jan 2006
• 1/15/06 or 1-15-06 (or 15/1/06 depending on your Locale settings)
• Today
• Tomorrow
• Tuesday
• Next Friday
• Last Sunday
• Now (the current date and time)

• Today at 9:15 AM
• Dec 31, 2006 15:00
• Thursday 8:30 pm

• Jan 1, 2006 to Jan 15, 2006
• Monday - Friday
• Tomorrow 9:30 - 11:00 am
• Next Sunday 11:00 PM to next Monday 9:00 AM

You can use all of these terms when entering Field values.

You can also use them when writing Value filters to control which entries are displayed in a view. In addition, you can use “before” or “after”, and also “from now” or “ago” (to refer to the future or past respectively).

• “Date: before 6 months ago” — matches entries with a date older than 6 months
• “Date: after 2 years ago” — matches entries with a date more recent than 2 years ago
• “Date: after 5 weeks from now” — matches entries 5 weeks in the future or more
• “Date: before 7 days from now” — matches entries up to, but not including, 7 days in the future
• “Date: <= 7 days from now” — matches entries up to, and including, 7 days in the future
• “Date: before Monday”
• “Date: after tomorrow”