Easy Date Math with PowerShell

Date math is hard… at least for me. My brain has trouble thinking in terms of dates. I probably overanalyze things, but if you say something like “let’s meet for dinner 2 days from now,” I immediately start thinking things like “inclusive” or “exclusive” dates. Do you mean 2 days from now including today? Does it include today if it is morning, but if it is evening, we’ll start with tomorrow? As I said, I’m sure I’m overanalyzing.

In any event, I have discovered that I can easily use PowerShell to calculate dates for me. For the last few years, I’ve been using code like ([datetime]'1/2/2013').AddDays(3) to help me figure out what day something would be.

At work, we have recurring dev meetings… and for whatever reason, we decided to have them on a “tri-weekly” basis. Not every week, not every other week, not monthly, but tri-weekly. My date-encumbered brain just can’t handle this stress.

So, I turn to PowerShell. Behold, the Get-DevLunchDays.ps1 script:

$initialDate = [datetime]'2013/1/8'

$rollingDate = $initialDate

do {
    Write-Host $rollingDate.ToShortDateString()
    $rollingDate = $rollingDate.AddDays(21)
} until ($rollingDate -ge [datetime]'2013/12/31')

I’ve hardcoded an initial date in the $initialDate variable and then I just script out the rest. Sure, it’s simple, but it saves me time and stress!