Handlebars Reference: Date and Time Helpers

You can use date and time helpers to compare and modify numeric strings that are formatted as dates and times.

# In this article

# Comparing dates

The #ifGte, #ifGt, #ifLte, and #ifLt helpers are generally used to compare numbers, but you can use them to compare dates if you format the dates as numbers (no hyphens, spaces, or slashes). To do this, use the dateFormat helper to format the values of date fields as numeric strings (for example, yyyyMMddHHmmss).

# Check if a date is on or after another date

The #ifGte helper checks to see if a date is greater than or equal to the value of another date. If it is, the associated content is displayed. Otherwise, the content is not displayed.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare to another.
fieldName2 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare the first date to.
content — The content you want to display if the first date is greater than (i.e., more recent) or equal to the second date.

# Format

{{#ifGte fieldName1 fieldName2}}
    <div>content</div>
{{/ifGte}}

# Example

Code	Example trialStartDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	Your Fiterable free trial has ended

# Check if a date is after another date

The #ifGt helper checks to see if a date is greater than the value of another date. If it is, the associated content is displayed. Otherwise, the content is not displayed.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare to another.
fieldName2 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare the first date to.
content — The content you want to display if the first date is greater than (i.e., more recent) the second date.

# Format

{{#ifGt fieldName1 fieldName2}}
    <div>content</div>
{{/ifGt}}

# Example

Code	Example trialStartDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	Your Fiterable free trial has ended

# Check if a date is on or before another date

The #ifLte helper checks to see if a date is less than or equal to the value of another date. If it is, the associated content is displayed. Otherwise, the content is not displayed.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare to another.
fieldName2 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare the first date to.
content — The content you want to display if the first date is less than (i.e., less recent) or equal to the second date.

# Format

{{#ifLte fieldName1 fieldName2}}
    <div>content</div>
{{/ifLte}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	signupDate was before June 30, 2025

# Check if a date is before another date

The #ifLt helper checks to see if a date is less than the value of another date. If it is, the associated content is displayed. Otherwise, the content is not displayed.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare to another.
fieldName2 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to compare the first date to.
content — The content you want to display if the first date is less than (i.e., less recent) the second date.

# Format

{{#ifLt fieldName1 fieldName2}}
    <div>content</div>
{{/ifLt}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	signupDate was before June 30, 2025

# Formatting dates

The dateFormat Handlebars helper outputs a given date in the specified format. There are several options you can specify for displaying dates in different formats.

# Display the full alphanumeric date (with day of the week)

Use the format="full" option to display the full, unabbreviated date, including the day of the week.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to format.

# Format

{{dateFormat fieldName format="full"}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	Wednesday, February 12, 2025

# Display the full alphanumeric date (without day of the week)

Use the format="long" option to display the full, unabbreviated date without the day of the week.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to format.

# Format

{{dateFormat fieldName format="long"}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	February 12, 2025

# Display the abbreviated alphanumeric date

Use the format="medium" option to display the abbreviated alphanumeric date without the day of the week.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to format.

# Format

{{dateFormat fieldName format="medium"}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	Feb 12, 2025

# Display the numeric date

Use the format="short" option to display the date in numeric DD/MM/YY format.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to format.

# Format

{{dateFormat fieldName format="short"}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	02/12/25

# Display a date according to a locale

Specify a locale code along with your preferred formatting option (full/long/medium/short) to display the date according to the norms of a region/language. This rearranges the order of day/month/year as needed, translates month names to the associated language, and adds the appropriate punctuation.

# Properties

fieldName — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to format. format — The formatting option (full/long/medium/short) you want to use to format the date.
locale — The locale code you want to use to format the date.

# Format

{{dateFormat fieldName "format" "locale"}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-02-12	12. Februar 2025

# Display the date according to a time zone

Specify a time zone to display a date based on a time zone. This can be helpful if you have customers in different regions and time zones around the world and want to display dates and times correctly for each user.

# Properties

fieldName1 — The name of the user or event data field containing the date you want to format.
fieldName2 — The name of the user or event data field containing the time zone you want to use to format your date. (Alternatively, you can include a TZ time zone code instead of referencing the value of a field.)

# Format

{{dateFormat fieldName1 tz="fieldName2"}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2018-01-01 00:00:00	Dec 31, 2017

# Calculating dates

The dateMath helper uses a mathematical expression to calculate a new date before or after a specified date. Input date values must be in ISO 8601 format.

# Calculate a date from another date

You can use the dateMath helper to add or subtract some period of time from an input date and display the resulting date. The dateMath helper supports the following mathematical operations:

• - — Subtract
• +- Add
• / — Round

To learn more about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing by date and time values, see Handlebars Reference: Math Helpers and Using Relative Dates in Segments and Journeys.

# Properties

inputDate — The name of the user or event data field containing the date value you wish to calculate another date from (alternatively, this property can be a literal string value placed in double quotes).
dateCalculation — The amount of time you wish to add or subtract from your input date.

# Format

{{dateMath (inputDate "dateCalculation")}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-01-01 00:00:00	Jan 8, 2025

# Calculate a date from now

You can use dateMath to add or subtract a certain amount of time from now (the current moment at send time).

# Properties

now — The current moment in time, which functions as the input date.
dateCalculation — The amount of time you wish to add or subtract from the current date/time.

# Format

{{dateMath "now" "dateCalculation"}}

# Example

Code	Example signupDate value	Output
	2025-04-04	Apr 3, 2025

# Calculate the number of days away from a date

You can use the dateMath helper to determine how many days there are between a date from a user or event data field and now (the current date at send time).

{{dateMath myDateField (now format="-y'y'+1'y'-M'M'+1'M'-d'd'+1'd'-H'H'-m'm'-s's'" tz="UTC") format="D"}}

# Calculate a person's age

{{dateMath fieldName (now format="-y'y'+1'y'-M'M'+1'M'-d'd'+1'd'-H'H'-m'm'-s's'" tz="UTC") format="yy"}}

# Display the current date and time

now displays the current date and time. By default, now displays the date in "medium" format (for example, "Apr 7, 2025"), but you can change this by specifying a different formatting option (see Formatting Dates).

# Format

{{now format="formatString"}}

For example:

{{now format="yyyy"}}

# Display the current year

{{now format="yyyy"}}

# Display the current day of the week

{{now format="EEEE"}}

# Display the current time

timestamp displays the current time in epoch milliseconds (the number of milliseconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC).

# Format

{{timestamp}}

# Example

Code	Example current time value	Output
	Tuesday, April 8, 2025 5:11:00.210 PM	1744132260210

# Time units reference

When working with dates and times using Handlebars, you can use the following date and time units to specify your preferred formatting and display options.

# Want to learn more?

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