Microsoft Dynamics AX (Archived)

Difference between using DateTimeUtil::getSystemDateTime(); and DateTimeUtil::utcNow();

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Posted on by Ann2015

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what is difference between using DateTimeUtil::getSystemDateTime(); and DateTimeUtil::utcNow();

Can anyone please explain?

Thank You.

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André Arnaud de Cal... 300,911 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi Ann,

The utcNow method takes the current PC date/time.

In AX you can change a session date/time to default these values e.g. when you want to enter a lot of transactions on a certain date. the getSystemDateTime returns this session specific date/time.

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Ann2015 1,128 on at

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Hi Andre, thanks for reply but the getSystemDateTime didn't work for us.

We have a batch program that runs every morning at 2 am. We want to update a date field in ProjTable with today's date but for some weird reason it updates it to yesterdays date. I am using getSystemDateTime . I am not sure what is going on.

Thanks

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André Arnaud de Cal... 300,911 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi Ann,

It would be useful if you explained your issue in the initial question.

The session date might be different due to e.g. timezone differences. Anyway, if you always needs the current date, you should use the utcNow method.

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Martin Dráb 237,801 Most Valuable Professional on at

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If you have a local time, you can't store it directly in database, because values there are expected to be in UTC. You have to use DateTimeUtil::removeTimeZoneOffset() to convert local time to UTC. For example, current UTC is Thursday, 19:11, but people in Sydney already have Friday, 05:11.

I guess that's the problem.

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Ann2015 1,128 on at

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Thanks Martin!

I have changed it to use UTC now. Should I also use DateTimeUtil::removeTimeZoneOffset() ?

Thank You.

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Martin Dráb 237,801 Most Valuable Professional on at

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No, utcNow() already returns UTC. You can easily test it if you're not sure.

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Ann2015 1,128 on at

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I have tested it but during the day it works fine. seems like when the program runs at 1 am (USA time) it is getting messed up so I am concerned. I will check tomorrow and find out.

Thanks for all your help.

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Martin Dráb 237,801 Most Valuable Professional on at

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I meant testing utcNow() in isolation, not testing it buried somewhere is a complex solution. That wouldn't tell

you much, because if you get an unexpected result, you can't be sure which component is responsible. Do integration tests only after you test units.

By the way, if you're doing black-box testing of such things, it's wise to set system timezone far away from UTC. If you have a small difference, such as just one hour, it's easy to overlook problems.

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Mea_ 60,284 on at

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Hi Ann2015,

You can read this blog post to get more details about working with time and date in AX kashperuk.blogspot.co.nz/.../q-session-working-with-utcdatetime-from.html

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