I’m trying to use an expression that will add 12 hours to the current time. This isn’t working:
{{today = new Date().getTime()}}{{today.addHours(today.getTime(), 12)}}
This is: {{today = new Date().getTime()}}
Sorry, I’m really new to using n8n, and I’m not sure I get expressions.
This is for the start and end parameters for a Google Cal query.
Hi @Jason_Jason, have you had a look at our Date & Time node? It simplifies time calculations like adding 12 hours a lot like so:
{
"nodes": [
{
"parameters": {
"action": "calculate",
"value": "={{new Date()}}",
"duration": 12,
"timeUnit": "hours",
"dataPropertyName": "in12hours",
"options": {}
},
"name": "Date & Time",
"type": "n8n-nodes-base.dateTime",
"typeVersion": 1,
"position": [
450,
300
]
},
{
"parameters": {},
"name": "Start",
"type": "n8n-nodes-base.start",
"typeVersion": 1,
"position": [
250,
300
]
},
{
"parameters": {
"action": "calculate",
"value": "={{new Date()}}",
"duration": 12,
"timeUnit": "hours",
"dataPropertyName": "in12hours",
"options": {}
},
"name": "Date & Time",
"type": "n8n-nodes-base.dateTime",
"typeVersion": 1,
"position": [
450,
300
]
}
],
"connections": {
"Start": {
"main": [
[
{
"node": "Date & Time",
"type": "main",
"index": 0
}
]
]
}
}
}
If you want to use an expression only, this is vanilla Javascript not setting/reading variables and works fine in expressions: {{new Date(new Date().getTime() + (12 * 60 * 60 * 1000))}} (it just adds 12 * 60 * 60 * 1000 milliseconds to the current date/time, which is how Javascript stores dates - replace the 12 with any other amount of hours you might need).
I think I want the expression only so it limits the number of objects returned from the Google Cal query.
I put that expression for the end date, and it returns an error. I think the format of the expression output is wrong (it’s not a date, it’s an object):
Sorry for that: To get a real date string instead of a date object, you could append .toISOString() like so: {{new Date(new Date().getTime() + (12 * 60 * 60 * 1000)).toISOString()}}. This would also work for the start time (which seems to be an epoch number).
Assuming your start date is “now”, that could be an expression like {{new Date().toISOString()}}.
I do the same thing with the date and time node, I always feel that if I have to use JavaScript in a workflow I have failed 
We set the from and to time formats in date and time nodes then use the result of that in the Google cal node.
Thank you both!
