# Top 7 Date methods you should know

In this tutorial, we will look at the Top 7 methods to make you productive when working with dates. Using dates come in the form of the `DateTime` class, which proves effective when implementing features for interfaces like calendars, schedules and appointments.

Here is an example snippet showing how to create a `DateTime` object in Dart:

```dart
var now = DateTime.now();
var berlinWallFell = DateTime.utc(1989, 11, 9);
var moonLanding = DateTime.parse("1969-07-20 20:18:04Z");
```

You can retrieve useful information like so:

```dart
berlinWallFell.year; // => 1989
berlinWallFell.month; // => 11 (November) numbering starts from 1 (January)
berlinWallFell.day; // => 9
berlinWallFell.weekday; // => 4 (Thursday) numbering starts from 1 (Monday)
```

`DateTime` comes with some useful constant values for days and months:

```dart
moonLanding.weekday == DateTime.sunday; // => true
moonLanding.month == DateTime.july; // => true
DateTime.daysPerWeek; // => 7
```

If you like what you see so far then read on!

## **1\. add()**

This adds the provided duration and returns a new `DateTime` instance.

```dart
var berlinWallAdd10 = berlinWallFell.add(Duration(days: 10, hours: 5))); // 19th of November at 05:00 hrs

print(berlinWallAdd10.day); // => 19
print(berlinWallAdd10.hour); // => 5
```

## **2\. difference()**

This accepts another `DateTime` object, returning the difference as a `Duration` object. You are then able to extract the days, hours, minutes and so on.

```dart
var diff = berlinWallFell.difference(moonLanding);

print(diff.inDays); // => 7416
print(diff.inHours); // => 177987
print(diff.inMinutes); // => 10679261
```

## **3\. isAfter(**`DateTime` other)

This checks that the given date is after `other`.

```dart
moonLanding.isAfter(berlinWallFell); // => false
```

## **4\. isBefore(**`DateTime` other)

This checks that the given date is before `other`.

```dart
moonLanding.isBefore(berlinWallFell); // => true
```

## **5\. compareTo(**`DateTime` other)

Checks to see that the date values are equal. Returns `0` if they are equal.

```dart
berlinWallFell.compareTo(berlinWallFell); // => 0 (equal)
moonLanding.compareTo(berlinWallFell); // => -1 (not equal)
```

## **6\. subtract(**`Duration` duration)

Subtracts the given duration from the date.

```dart
berlinWallFell.subtract(
  Duration(days: 7416, hours: 3, minutes: 41, seconds: 56),
);
// => 1969-07-20 20:18:04.000Z (about the day and time of the moon landing)
```

## **7\. toLocal()**

Returns the date in the local time zone. Useful for [i18n](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization).

```dart
moonLanding.toLocal(); // => 1969-07-20 21:18:04.000
```

## **And a bonus…**

## **8\. toUtc()**

Returns the date in UTC time.

```dart
moonLanding.toUtc(); // => 1969-07-20 20:18:04.000Z
moonLanding.timeZoneName; // => UTC
```

## **Conclusion**

I hope this was insightful and if this is your first exposure to Dart, read my [first steps tutorial](https://dev.to/graphicbeacon/learn-dart-before-you-flutter-2997) to grasp the basics. The code snippets for this article are available on [DartPad](https://dartpad.dartlang.org/e37bd9e9b9181fb9fb50b317d7ddf6af).

Like, share and follow me for more articles on Dart.

## **Quicklinks**

1. [DateTime class Documentation](https://api.dartlang.org/stable/2.1.1/dart-core/DateTime-class.html)
    
2. [Duration class Documentation](https://api.dartlang.org/stable/2.1.1/dart-core/Duration-class.html)
    
3. [**Free Dart screencasts on Egghead.io**](https://egghead.io/instructors/jermaine-oppong)