How To Set A Date Value In A SharePoint Designer Workflow

This article explains different methods of setting a date value (date variable) using a SharePoint designer workflow. It describes how a date variable can be set to either a static date, a dynamic date, or a calculated date.

Assumptions

You already have a workflow in which you want to set (or calculate) a date
You have created a variable named DateVar of type Date/Time in your workflow

A date variable in a SharePoint designer workflow can be set to a specific (or static) date, or it can be set to a calculated (or dynamic) date [for example, today’s date plus 5 days].

Let’s start by showing how to set a date variable either to today’s date or to some specific date.

1. Set A Date Value To Today’s Date Or Some Specified Date

To set the value of our DateVar variable to the current date or some other specific date:

Add the Set Workflow Variable action to your workflow
Set the workflow variable parameter to the DateVar variable you previously created
Click value in the Set Workflow Variable action and then click the ellipsis button
Select either Current date or Specific date (if you’re setting a specific date, choose the date and/or time from the options)
Press OK

2. Set A Date Value To The Value Of A Date Column In A List

To set the value of our DateVar workflow variable to the value of a date field in a list (say the Created date field):

Add the Set Workflow Variable action to your workflow
Set the workflow variable parameter to the DateVar variable you previously created
Click value in the Set Workflow Variable action and then click the formula (fx) button
On the Field from source dropdown, select the Created date field (assuming that’s the date field you want to use)
Press OK

3. Set A Date Value To The Value Of A Calculation

To set the value of our DateVar workflow variable to the value of a date calculation, for example, to a date that is 5 days from today:

Create a new variable named TodaysDate of type Date/Time in your workflow
Add the Set Workflow Variable action to your workflow
Set the workflow variable parameter to the TodaysDate variable
Click value in the Set Workflow Variable action and then click the ellipsis button
Select Current date and press OK
Add the workflow action called Add Time To Date to your workflow
Notice that a new Date/Time variable named date has been automatically created for you and used to store the output of the above action. Delete the automatically added variable (to keep things clean) and set the output to the DateVar variable you created earlier
Click 0 in the text for the action and type 5. Click minutes and select days from the dropdown.
Click date, click the formula (fx) button
For the Data source parameter, select Workflow Variables and Parameters
For the Field from source parameter, select Variable: TodaysDate
Press OK. The workflow lines will look like this:

NOTE: Trying to combine both lines into one, as shown below won’t work. At least, it didn’t work for me.

Bonus Tip: How To Blank Out A Date Column

You may sometimes need to set the value of a date column to empty or blank or null. You will NOT be able to do this by just plugging in an empty value or a space. Interestingly, SharePoint requires that you set the date to 1/01/0001 and that you use a variable to do this instead of attempting a direct value assignment.

Why these requirements? I don’t know. That’s just how it is. I discovered it the hard way too 🙁

So here’s how you would go about blanking out a date field:

Create a workflow variable named EmptyDate
Using the Set Workflow Variable action (described earlier), set the variable value to 1/01/0001
Set the date field you want to blank out to the workflow variable EmptyDate