Today’s Date in Numbers: Easy Guide

Finding today’s date in numerical form is a common task. This guide explains how to get “today’s date in numbers” across various platforms and programming languages.

There are two main formats:

• Ordinal Date: This represents the date as the day number within the year (e.g., February 9th is day 40). This is the most common understanding of “today’s date in numbers.”
• ISO Week Date: Less common, this assigns a day number (1-371) based on the ISO week numbering system.

Many tools have built-in functions for this:

In Microsoft Excel: =TODAY()-DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),1,0)

In Google Sheets: =DATEDIF(CONCAT("1-1-";year(now()));today();"D")+1

=TODAY()-DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),1,0)

Other programming languages:

Python: datetime.now().timetuple().tm_yday

JavaScript: Math.ceil((today - new Date(today.getFullYear(),0,1)) / 86400000)

PHP: date("z") + 1

$dayNumber = date("z") + 1; 

Databases:

MySQL: DAYOFYEAR(NOW())

Oracle: to_char(sysdate, 'DDD')

Unix/Linux command line: date +%j

date +%j

Knowing how to get “today’s date in numbers” is crucial for various programming and data tasks. Many tools and techniques are available to do this efficiently.