PS: Calculating Dates

2 minute read

Description:

It is common to need to compare dates or do date calculations in Powershell. The following is how I would go about it:

To Resolve:

  1. This is used in my Credit Balance script:

    1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

    # Generate all paydays for the year
[DateTime] $StartDate = "2018-01-05"
[Int]$DaysToSkip = 14
[DateTime]$EndDate = "2018-12-31"
$Arr = @()
while ($StartDate -le $EndDate) 
{
$Arr += $StartDate 
$StartDate = $StartDate.AddDays($DaysToSkip)
}

# Remove all paydays that have passed and place remaining in new array
$NewArr = @()
ForEach ($Ar in $Arr)
{
   $s = (Get-Date)
   $e = $Ar
   $Difference = New-TimeSpan -Start $s -End $e
   If ( $Difference -ge 1)
   {
   $NewArr += $Ar
   }
}

# Select the first one
$ClosestPayday = $NewArr[0].ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")

# Calculate how many days from now until payday
$Span = New-TimeSpan -Start (Get-Date) -End $NewArr[0]

# Round up one because there is always a whole number and some change
$DaysTilPayday = ($Span.Days + 1).ToString()

  2. What do you do if you want to calculate a certain day of the month though? That doesn’t always line up to every 30 days. Well, I did some research and this is how I would do “Calculate how many days until the 5th of the month:

    1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43

    $CurrentMonth = $((Get-Date).Month)
$CurrentDay = $((Get-Date).Day)
[datetime]$Date = Get-Date -Month $CurrentMonth -Day $CurrentDay
$ThisFifth = Get-Date -Month $CurrentMonth -Day 5

If ($CurrentMonth -eq 12)
{
   $CurrentMonthPlusOne = 1
}
Else
{
   $CurrentMonthPlusOne = $($Date.Month) + 1
}
[Datetime]$NextFifth = Get-Date -Month $CurrentMonthPlusOne -Day 5

$CurrentYearPlusOne = $($Date.Year) + 1
[Datetime]$NextFifthIfDecember = Get-Date -Month 1 -Day 5 -Year $CurrentYearPlusOne

$Span = New-TimeSpan -Start $Date -End $ThisFifth
If ($Span.Days.tostring().startswith('-'))
{
   If ($CurrentMonth -eq 12)
   {
      $Span = New-TimeSpan -Start $Date -End $NextFifthIfDecember
   }
   Else
   {
      $Span = New-TimeSpan -Start $Date -End $NextFifth
   }

}
Else
{
   If ($CurrentMonth -eq 12)
   {
      $Span = New-TimeSpan -Start $Date -End $NextFifthIfDecember
   }
   Else
   {
      # Do nothing as the date is already correct
   }
}
Write-Output "The fifth is $($Span.Days) days away!"

Comments

You May Also Enjoy