Use new Date/Time/DateTime methods for extracting parts

Properties

LC0083 Info Design Code Fix Ignore Obsolete

When extracting a component from a date or time value, the traditional AL approach uses numeric-argument functions — Date2DMY(MyDate, 2) for the month, or the Format/Evaluate round-trip for time parts. The argument 2 carries no meaning at the call site; a reader must recall that 1 is day, 2 is month, 3 is year. Extracting time components is worse: it converts through a text representation with a format string like '<HOURS24>'.

Since runtime version 14.0, the Date, Time, and DateTime types have instance methods for direct component access. MyDate.Month() is self-documenting and avoids the intermediate text conversion.

Examples

Type	Old pattern	New method	Returns
Date	`Date2DMY(MyDate, 1)`	`MyDate.Day()`	Day of month
Date	`Date2DMY(MyDate, 2)`	`MyDate.Month()`	Month
Date	`Date2DMY(MyDate, 3)`	`MyDate.Year()`	Year
Date	`Date2DWY(MyDate, 1)`	`MyDate.DayOfWeek()`	Day of week (1–7, Monday = 1)
Date	`Date2DWY(MyDate, 2)`	`MyDate.WeekNo()`	Week number (1–53)
~~Date~~	~~`Date2DWY(MyDate, 3)`~~	~~`MyDate.Year()`~~	~~Gets the year~~
Time	`Evaluate(i, Format(MyTime, 2, '<HOURS24>'))`	`MyTime.Hour()`	Hours (0–23)
Time	`Evaluate(i, Format(MyTime, 2, '<MINUTES>'))`	`MyTime.Minute()`	Minutes (0–59)
Time	`Evaluate(i, Format(MyTime, 2, '<SECONDS>'))`	`MyTime.Second()`	Seconds (0–59)
Time	`Evaluate(i, Format(MyTime, 3, '<THOUSANDS>'))`	`MyTime.Millisecond()`	Milliseconds (0–999)
DateTime	`DT2Date(MyDateTime)`	`MyDateTime.Date()`	Date part
DateTime	`DT2Time(MyDateTime)`	`MyDateTime.Time()`	Time part

procedure GetMonthOfPosting(SalesHeader: Record "Sales Header"): Integer
begin
    exit(Date2DMY(SalesHeader."Posting Date", 2)); // Use new Date/Time/DateTime methods for extracting parts [LC0083]
end;

Use the instance method on the date value directly:

procedure GetMonthOfPosting(SalesHeader: Record "Sales Header"): Integer
begin
    exit(SalesHeader."Posting Date".Month());
end;

Date2DWY(MyDate, 3) vs MyDate.Year()

Date2DWY(MyDate, 3) and MyDate.Year() are not interchangeable. Date2DWY returns the ISO week-numbering year , which can differ from the calendar year for dates in weeks that span two years:

When the input date to the Date2DWY method is in a week that spans two years, the Date2DWY method computes the output year as the year that has the most days.

— System.Date2DWY(Date, Integer) Method on Microsoft Learn

December 30, 2013 falls in the week Monday December 29, 2013 through Sunday January 4, 2014 — three days in 2013, four in 2014. Date2DWY(20131230D, 3) returns 2014, while 20131230D.Year() returns 2013.

Use new Date/Time/DateTime methods for extracting parts

Examples

Date2DWY(MyDate, 3) vs MyDate.Year()

See also