Dates and the calendar
This page covers writing dates, adding days, weeks or workdays to them, counting the time between two dates, and pulling out details such as the weekday or week number. Reach for it when you plan a project, count down to a holiday, work out a deadline or check how long ago something happened.
Dates follow your Mac’s clock and time zone. Answers that use today, now or a relative date such as next monday change from day to day, and relative clocks refresh while the editor is visible. On this page those examples show the answers from Wednesday 16 September 2026, so yours will differ. Everything else uses fixed dates.
For clock times and lengths of time such as 2h 30m, see Clock times and durations. For converting between places, see Time zones.
Writing dates
Write a date the way you would in a sentence. The month can come first or second, and month names can be shortened.
14 June 2025 gives June 14, 202514th June 2025 gives June 14, 2025June 14, 2025 gives June 14, 2025June 14th 2025 gives June 14, 2025Jun 14 2025 gives June 14, 20252025-06-14 gives June 14, 202506/14/2025 gives June 14, 2025June 2025 gives June 2025Q3 2025 gives Jul 1 – Sep 30, 2025first half of 2025 gives Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2025H2 2025 gives Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2025Answers here read month first (June 14, 2025), as they do with the standard North America number format. With Number format set to System Region in Settings › Calculations and a Mac region that puts the day first, such as the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa or Switzerland, every date shows the day first instead: 14 June 2025, 16 June 2025 at 9:00 AM. A date in the current year leaves the year off, so June 14 2026 shows as June 14 this year. To show a date another way, see Formatting dates.
| Form | Examples |
|---|---|
| Month name, day, year | June 14, 2025, June 14th, 2025, June the 14th 2025, Jun 14 2025 |
| Day, month name, year | 14 June 2025, 14th June 2025, 14 Jun 2025 |
| ISO 8601 | 2025-06-14, 2025-06-14T09:30:00Z, 2025-06-14T15:30:00.125+01:00 |
| Numeric with leading zeros | 06/14/2025, 03/01/2025 |
| Dotted, day first | 14.06.2025, 14.06.25 |
| Two-digit year | 14 Jun 25, 14 Mar 88 |
| Month and year | June 2025, Jun 2025 |
| Quarter or half year | Q3 2025, third quarter of 2025, third quarter 2025, the 4th quarter of 2025, first half of 2025, H2 2025, or Q3, third quarter and first half for this year |
| Day and month, this year | June 14, June 14th, 14 June, 14th June |
| Weekday | Monday, this friday, next monday, last friday |
| Weekday of a month | first monday of October 2025, last friday of the month |
| First or last day | first day of next month, last day of February 2027, end of month |
| Day of a month | the 15th of next month, 1st of October 2025 |
| Relative words | today, tomorrow, yesterday, the day after tomorrow |
| Whole periods | next week, this month, last quarter |
| Named holidays | Christmas, Easter 2027, Thanksgiving 2025 |
A quarter or half year, like a whole week or month, is a range of dates rather than a single day. You can count the days or workdays in it, or count down to it (see Counting down). H1 and H2 need a year, so a heading such as H1 stays a heading, and a quarter that doesn’t exist, such as Q5 2026, shows an error.
Numeric dates and other pitfalls
Numbers with slashes are the most common source of surprises.
03/01/2025 gives March 1, 202514/06/2025 gives June 14, 202514.06.2025 gives June 14, 202514 Mar 88 gives March 14, 1988February 30 2025 gives Unsupported: February 2025 has no day 30- Slashes follow the calculation locale. In a US-style locale, as in these examples, the month comes first, so
03/01/2025is 1 March; in a locale that puts the day first, it’s 3 January. If the first number is over 12 it can only be a day, so14/06/2025is 14 June everywhere. For a date that reads the same on any Mac, write the month name or use ISO form (2025-01-03). - Dots always put the day first.
14.06.2025is 14 June in every locale. - Two-digit years pick the nearest century.
00to49are 2000 to 2049, and50to99are 1950 to 1999, so14 Mar 88is 1988 and14 Jun 25is 2025. - Leading zeros matter.
6/14/2025without them is a division, not a date. - A year on its own is a number.
2025is two thousand and twenty-five. Use it inside a date, or in a range such as1978 to 2021. - Year-first slashes are not dates.
2025/06/14is a division; write2025-06-14instead. - A day the month doesn’t have is an error.
February 30 2025tells you February 2025 has no day 30, rather than quietly moving into March, so a typo can’t give you the wrong date.
Holidays
Named holidays work anywhere a date does. Without a year they mean this year’s date; add a year to pin them down.
Easter 2025 gives April 20, 2025Good Friday 2025 gives April 18, 2025Thanksgiving 2025 gives November 27, 2025Chinese New Year 2025 gives January 29, 2025weekday on Christmas 2025 gives ThursdayEaster 2030 gives April 21, 2030The names are Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Orthodox Christmas, Easter, Easter Sunday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Monday, Orthodox Easter, Orthodox Good Friday, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year’s Eve, Ramadan, end of Ramadan, Hanukkah, end of Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving (the U.S. holiday) and Black Friday. Hebrew, Islamic and Chinese dates come from their own calendars. Add a year to any name, as in Easter 2030, for a date further ahead. See Holidays and time-zone names for details.
Today and relative dates
These examples depend on today’s date, so the answers shown are from 16 September 2026.
today gives September 16tomorrow gives September 17this friday gives September 18next monday gives September 21last friday gives September 11a week ago gives September 9a week from today gives September 236 weeks from today gives October 28in 100 days gives December 25today + 30 days gives October 16tomorrow at 9am gives Tomorrow at 9:00 AMnext tuesday at 3pm gives Tuesday 3:00 PM2 weeks from now gives September 30, 2026 at 3:37 PMfrom today counts whole days and gives a date, while from now and ago count from the current moment. With whole days and weeks, ago shows the date alone, and from now keeps the time of day. in works both ways: in 100 days is a date, and in 2 hours is a time.
| Form | Example | Answer on 16 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
N units ago |
3 days ago |
September 13 |
N units from today |
6 weeks from today |
October 28 |
N units from date |
10 days from October 1 |
October 11 |
N workdays from date |
10 workdays from today |
September 30 |
in N units |
in 100 days |
December 25 |
N units from now |
a month from now |
October 16, 2026 at 3:37 PM |
| Hours from now or ago | 24 hours from now |
Tomorrow at 3:37 PM |
| Fractions | 1.5 days ago |
Yesterday at 3:37 AM |
date + N units |
Monday + 3 days |
Thursday, September 24 |
N units after date |
3 days after Monday |
Thursday, September 24 |
N units before date |
3 days before Monday |
Friday |
N units from weekday |
2 weeks from next monday |
October 5 |
weekday after N units |
Friday after 3 days |
September 25 |
| Day after tomorrow | the day after tomorrow |
September 18 |
A weekday on its own, such as Monday, means the coming one. this friday is the coming Friday, counting today; next monday and last friday step to the next or previous one, and Friday after 3 days is the first Friday on or after the date three days from now.
Each line works out one date, so a repeating schedule such as every monday or every 2 weeks from 1 October 2025 says it’s a recurring date instead of picking one day for you. Ask for the date you need, such as next monday or 2 weeks from 1 October 2025. Between an amount and a period, every still makes a rate, so a standing order of £25 every month is £25.00/month.
every 2 weeks from 1 October 2025 gives Unsupported: recurring dates: every 2 weeks2 weeks from 1 October 2025 gives October 15, 2025£25 every month gives £25.00/monthDays of a month
For paydays, bin days, month-end reviews and monthly meetups, ask for a particular weekday of a month. Write first to fifth (or 1st to 5th) or last, the weekday, then of or in and the month, quarter or year:
first monday of October 2025 gives October 6, 20252nd Tuesday of November 2025 gives November 11, 2025last friday of June 2025 gives June 27, 2025first monday in 2025 gives January 6, 2025last day of February 2024 gives February 29, 2024fifth monday of February 2025 gives Unsupported: February 2025 has no fifth MondayA day the month doesn’t have shows an error rather than slipping into the next month, so you can trust every date you get. The same phrases work for the months around today:
last friday of the month gives September 25last day of the month gives September 30first day of next month gives October 1the 15th of next month gives October 15first monday of next month gives October 5end of month is the same as last day of the month, and start of and end of also work with a year, quarter or half year, as in end of Q4 2025, end of first quarter of 2025 or start of H2 2025.
Next week, next month and other periods
On their own, next week, this month and last quarter show the whole period. Weeks run from Monday to Sunday. last quarter is the one before this quarter, while last quarter of 2025 is October to December 2025.
next week gives Sep 21 – Sep 27, 2026next month gives October 2026last quarter gives Apr 1 – Jun 30, 2026start of next week gives September 21For a single day, write start of next week for the Monday, or a week from today for the same day next week. Periods also work in counts such as days in next month; see Counting down.
Adding and subtracting time
Add or subtract days, weeks, fortnights, months or years with + and -, or write it out with after, before and from.
June 14 2025 + 2 weeks gives June 28, 20252 weeks before June 14 2025 gives May 31, 202510 days after June 14 2025 gives June 24, 202510 days from October 1 2025 gives October 11, 2025June 14 2025 + 1 fortnight gives June 28, 2025September 1 2025 + 90 days gives November 30, 2025Christmas 2025 - 4 weeks gives November 27, 2025Months, years and the end of the month
Adding months or years keeps the day of the month. When that day doesn’t exist in the target month, the answer moves back to the last day of that month.
January 31 2025 + 1 month gives February 28, 2025January 31 2024 + 1 month gives February 29, 2024February 29 2024 + 1 year gives February 28, 2025January 31 2025 + 30 days gives March 2, 2025If you need an exact number of days, add days rather than a month: + 1 month and + 30 days give different answers.
The time between two dates
Subtracting one date from another, or writing date to date, gives the gap in years, months, weeks and days. Add in days, in weeks or another unit to convert it.
June 14 2025 - March 3 2025 gives 3 months 1 week 4 daysMarch 3 2025 to June 14 2025 gives 3 months 1 week 4 daysMarch 3 2025 to June 14 2025 in days gives 103 daysMarch 3 2025 - June 14 2025 in days gives -103 daysJune 14 2025 - March 3 2025 in weeks gives 14.7142857143 weeks1978 to 2021 gives 43 yearsto always gives the gap, while subtraction keeps its sign: a later date minus an earlier one is positive, and the other way round is negative. That makes it easy to check whether something was late:
due = March 3 2025paid = March 10 2025paid - due gives 1 weekpaid - due > 0 days gives trueDates without a year count forward, so December 25 - today is the time left until Christmas and today - Friday is the time since last Friday. When neither date has a year, Varlig picks the nearest reading, so March 12 - April 5 is -3 weeks 3 days.
Like to, the difference between gives the gap whichever date comes first. Adding two dates
doesn’t mean anything, so a line that tries tells you what to write instead:
the difference between June 14 2025 and March 3 2025 gives 3 months 1 week 4 days1 June 2025 + 1 March 2025 gives Unsupported: dates can't be added; subtract them for the time between, or add a durationTo count whole weeks, months or years instead of fractions, see Counting between dates.
Workdays
Workdays skip Saturdays and Sundays. Use them for deadlines (“ten working days from Friday”) and for counting how many days you can bill in a month.
June 13 2025 + 10 workdays gives June 27, 202510 workdays from October 1 2025 gives October 15, 2025December 30 2025 - 2 workdays gives December 26, 2025workdays between March 3 2025 and March 31 2025 gives 20 workdaysMarch 3 2025 to March 31 2025 in workdays gives 20 workdaysworkdays in March 2025 gives 21 workdaysworkdays in March 2025 - 3 gives 18 workdaysworkdays in Q4 2025 gives 66 workdaysworkdays in 2025 gives 261 workdaysworkdays, work days, business days and weekdays all mean the same thing. working days isn’t one of them.
workdays between leaves out the end date, so 3 to 31 March counts 20 workdays even though March has 21. workdays in counts every workday of a month, quarter or year. A number taken off a count comes off the count, so workdays in March 2025 - 3 allows for three days’ leave.
Workdays, hours and weeks
A workday is eight hours when you convert from hours, and a week holds five workdays when you convert to or from calendar days, weeks, months or years. You can change the hours per workday in Settings › Calculations.
37.5 hours in workdays gives 4.6875 workdays2 weeks in workdays gives 10 workdays10 workdays in days gives 14 dayswork hours in June 2025 gives 168 hourswork hours between March 3 2025 and March 17 2025 gives 80 hourswork hours in a month counts eight hours for each workday in it.
Counting between dates
Put a unit in front of between to count in that unit.
days between July 14 2025 and July 25 2025 gives 11 daysdays from July 14 2025 through July 25 2025 gives 12 daysdays between Christmas 2025 and New Year's Day 2026 gives 7 dayshours between June 13 2025 and June 16 2025 gives 72 hoursweeks between January 6 2025 and March 31 2025 gives 12 weeksmonths between January 15 2025 and July 1 2025 gives 5.5256781453 monthswhole months between January 15 2025 and July 1 2025 gives 5 monthswhole years between March 5 1990 and June 14 2025 gives 35 yearshalfway between March 3 2025 and June 14 2025 gives April 24, 2025betweenleaves out the end date. A hotel stay from 14 to 25 July is 11 nights.from … throughincludes both ends. The same stay covers 12 calendar days. The wordinclusiveisn’t recognised, so usethrough.wholedrops the fraction. Use it for ages and complete months or weeks.halfway betweenandmidpoint betweengive the date in the middle.
For times on the same day, give each date a time: minutes between June 14 2025 at 9am and June 14 2025 at 5:30pm is 510 min.
Days, weeks and months in a period
days in February 2024 gives 29 daysdays in February 2025 gives 28 daysdays in Q1 2025 gives 90 daysdays in first half of 2025 gives 181 daysdays in 2024 gives 366 daysweeks in Q2 2025 gives 13 weeksmonths in Q2 2025 gives 3 monthsis 2028 a leap year gives trueTo count a period around today, write the, this, next or last with week, month, quarter or year. These follow today’s date, so the answers below are from September 2026.
days in this month gives 30 daysworkdays in next month gives 22 workdaysdays in last quarter gives 91 daysdays in the year gives 365 daysWeeks start on Monday, and the year is the calendar year, so it has 366 days in a leap year.
Counting down: until, since and left in
These count from today, so they change every day. The answers shown are from 16 September 2026.
days until Christmas gives 100 dayshow many days until Christmas gives 100 dayswhole weeks until Christmas gives 14 weeksdays until December 25 2030 gives 1,561 daysdays until 25/12 gives 100 daysworkdays until December 19 gives 68 workdaysdays since January 1 2020 gives 2,450 daysdays left in September gives 14 daysdays left in the year gives 106 daysworkdays left in 2026 gives 76 workdaysweeks left in 2026 gives 15 weeksdays until Q4 2026 gives 15 days- Ask the way you’d say it.
how many days until Christmasis the same asdays until Christmas. - A day and month with a slash is a date.
days until 25/12counts down to 25 December. The order follows your calculation locale, and a number over 12 is always the day. left incounts what’s still ahead in the period you’re in now.days left in the yearcounts the days after today up to 31 December, andworkdays left in 2026counts the working days among them. It works for this week, month, quarter or year; for a period that hasn’t started, countuntilit instead.wholecounts complete weeks, months or years, sowhole weeks until Christmasleaves off the part week at the end.untila date that has already passed gives a negative count, such as-265 days.untila period that is already over shows no answer.
Hours until a time of day
A clock time without a date means the next one when you count until it, and the most recent one when you count since it. So the answer is always how long you have left, or how long it has been. The answers below are from 3:37 PM.
hours until midnight gives 8.3833333333 hourshours since 9am gives 6.6166666667 hoursminutes until 5pm gives 83 minFor hours and minutes rather than a decimal, write now to midnight; see Clock times and durations.
Ages and anniversaries
Subtract a birth date from today for an age, then convert it.
age = today - March 5 1990 gives 36 years 6 months 1 week 4 daysage in years gives 36.5346311013 yearsage in days gives 13,344 dayswhole years between March 5 1990 and today gives 36 yearsWith two fixed dates the answer never changes, so you can use it for records:
June 14 2025 - March 5 1990 gives 35 years 3 months 1 week 2 daysWeekdays, week numbers and the moon
Ask for part of a date with on.
weekday on July 4 2025 gives Fridayday of month on July 4 2025 gives 4day of year on July 4 2025 gives 185week number on July 4 2025 gives 27week of month on July 4 2025 gives 1moon phase on June 11 2025 gives Full Moonlunar day on July 4 2025 gives 9| Ask for | Also written as |
|---|---|
weekday on <date> |
day of week on <date> |
day of month on <date> |
|
day of year on <date> |
day number on <date> |
week number on <date> |
week of the year on <date> |
week of month on <date> |
week of the month on <date> |
lunar day on <date> |
|
moon phase on <date> |
Week numbers are ISO weeks, which start on Monday. what day is <date> only repeats the date back, so use weekday on to find the day of the week.
day number, lunar day and moon phase also work without a date and then mean today. week number needs a date, so write week number on today for this week’s. You can also ask how far through the current day, week, month or year you are:
day number gives 259week number on today gives 38moon phase gives Waxing Crescentyear percentage gives 70.8635337392%year percentage to 1 dp gives 70.9%month percentage to 0 dp gives 52%day percentage, week percentage, month percentage and year percentage all work the same way.
Formatting dates
Write as followed by a pattern to show a date in another layout, for a file name, a form or a letter.
July 4 2025 as yyyy-MM-dd gives 2025-07-04July 4 2025 as dd/MM/yyyy gives 04/07/2025July 4 2025 as d MMM yyyy gives 4 Jul 2025July 4 2025 as EEEE, d MMMM yyyy gives Friday, 4 July 2025July 4 2025 as EEE d MMM gives Fri 4 JulJuly 4 2025 as yyyyMMdd gives 20250704July 4 2025 as 'Week' ww gives Week 27July 4 2025 as 'Report for' MMMM yyyy gives Report for July 2025| Letters | Meaning | July 4 2025 as … |
|---|---|---|
yyyy, y |
Year | 2025 |
yy |
Two-digit year | 25 |
M, MM |
Month number, MM adds a leading zero |
7, 07 |
MMM |
Short month name | Jul |
MMMM |
Month name | July |
d, dd |
Day of month, dd adds a leading zero |
4, 04 |
D, DDD |
Day of year | 185 |
E, EEE |
Short weekday name | Fri |
EEEE |
Weekday name | Friday |
w, ww |
ISO week number, ww adds a leading zero |
27, 27 |
Y, YYYY |
Year the ISO week belongs to | 2025 |
'text' |
Text kept as written | Week for 'Week' |
Spaces, commas, dashes, slashes and dots between the letters are kept as written. Put words in single quotes to add them to the answer, as in 'Week' or 'Report for', and write '' for an apostrophe.
Around New Year a date can fall in week 1 of the next year or the last week of the one before. Pair week numbers with YYYY so the year matches the week:
December 29 2025 as 'Week' w, YYYY gives Week 1, 2026January 6 2025 as 'Week' ww gives Week 02Patterns work on dates only; time letters such as HH and mm aren’t available for them. For the current time, now as HH:mm gives something like 15:37, and now as date gives today’s date.
Timestamps and ISO 8601
A Unix timestamp counts seconds since 1 January 1970 (UTC). Convert timestamps from logs or databases with as date, and turn a moment back into a timestamp with as timestamp or as unix time.
1751619600 as date gives July 4, 2025 at 9:00:00 AM GMT1751619600000 as date gives July 4, 2025 at 9:00:00 AM GMT2025-07-04T09:00:00Z as timestamp gives 1751619600July 4 2025 at 9am UTC as unix time gives 1751619600July 4 2025 at 9am UTC as ISO8601 gives 2025-07-04T09:00:00ZJuly 4 2025 as ISO8601 gives 2025-07-042025-07-04T11:00:00+02:00 gives 2025-07-04T09:00:00Z2025-07-04T09:00:00Z in New York gives July 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM2025-07-04T09:30:00 to date gives July 4, 2025- Milliseconds are detected. A 13-digit timestamp is read as milliseconds, so both forms above give the same moment.
to dateworks the same asas date. - An ISO string
to dategives the day it falls on. The string already shows its time, so2025-07-04T09:30:00 to dateis July 4, 2025. A Unix timestampas dateshows the date and the time. - The answer names its zone.
as dateshows which zone the time is in, GMT in these examples. - ISO strings with
Zor an offset are exact moments and are shown in UTC. Addinand a place, as in2025-07-04T09:00:00Z in New York, to read the moment in local time. An ISO string without a zone is read in your time zone. - A date on its own stays a date in ISO form.
July 4 2025 as ISO8601gives2025-07-04; add a time for the full stamp. - A date without a time means noon for timestamps.
July 4 2025 as timestampgives noon on that day in your time zone, so the number depends on where you are. Add a time and a zone, as above, when you need an exact value.
The current timestamp changes every second:
current timestamp gives 1789573136.03746new timestamp gives 1789573136.03743Putting it together
Here is a project plan in a note. Each phase builds on the one before, so changing the kickoff date or a phase length moves every date after it.
kickoff = first monday of March 2025design = 3 weeksbuild = 6 weekstesting = 10 workdaysdesign done = kickoff + design gives March 24, 2025build done = design done + build gives May 5, 2025launch = build done + testing gives May 19, 2025weekday on launch gives Mondaylaunch as EEEE, d MMMM yyyy gives Monday, 19 May 2025workdays between kickoff and launch gives 55 workdayswhole weeks between kickoff and launch gives 11 weeksPhase lengths in weeks are calendar weeks, while testing counts only weekdays, so the launch always falls on a working day. The last two lines give the length of the project for a status update.