I’d like to create an app that says “On this day in history…” and then shows interesting things from the past. Two questions:
What’s the best way to access the current date in Glide?
What would be the smartest way to structure the data in AirTable?
You can have it with a math column, type in a variable like “Now” and point that to the “Current date/time” value.
However, for your specific use case, I would do it like this.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| March 14, 1879 | Albert Einstein is born |
| May 8, 1945 | Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) |
| October 4, 1957 | The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite |
| December 17, 1903 | The Wright Brothers make the first successful powered flight |
| February 14, 1849 | The California Gold Rush officially begins |
| October 2, 1869 | The first transcontinental railroad is completed in the United States |
| July 20, 1969 | Apollo 11 mission successfully lands on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the lunar surface |
| June 2, 1953 | Queen Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom |
| August 26, 1920 | The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, giving women the right to vote |
| January 1, 1801 | The Act of Union comes into effect, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Then, create a Math column with the formula:
MONTH(D)*100+DAY(D)
With D being the date of the event.
| Date | Date Formatted | Event |
|---|---|---|
| March 14, 1879 | 0314 | Albert Einstein is born |
| May 8, 1945 | 0508 | Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) |
| October 4, 1957 | 1004 | The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite |
| December 17, 1903 | 1217 | The Wright Brothers make the first successful powered flight |
| February 14, 1849 | 0214 | The California Gold Rush officially begins |
| October 2, 1869 | 1002 | The first transcontinental railroad is completed in the United States |
| July 20, 1969 | 0720 | Apollo 11 mission successfully lands on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the lunar surface |
| June 2, 1953 | 0602 | Queen Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom |
| August 26, 1920 | 0826 | The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, giving women the right to vote |
| January 1, 1801 | 0101 | The Act of Union comes into effect, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Then add a math column named “Now” to calculate the same value for today.
MONTH(N)*100+DAY(N)
With N being the current date/time value.
| Date | Date Formatted | Now | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 14, 1879 | 0314 | 0120 | Albert Einstein is born |
| May 8, 1945 | 0508 | 0120 | Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) |
| October 4, 1957 | 1004 | 0120 | The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite |
| December 17, 1903 | 1217 | 0120 | The Wright Brothers make the first successful powered flight |
| February 14, 1849 | 0214 | 0120 | The California Gold Rush officially begins |
| October 2, 1869 | 1002 | 0120 | The first transcontinental railroad is completed in the United States |
| July 20, 1969 | 0720 | 0120 | Apollo 11 mission successfully lands on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the lunar surface |
| June 2, 1953 | 0602 | 0120 | Queen Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom |
| August 26, 1920 | 0826 | 0120 | The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, giving women the right to vote |
| January 1, 1801 | 0101 | 0120 | The Act of Union comes into effect, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
Then, you can add an inline list/collection of this table, filter where Date Formatted equals Now.
You can save one column by having a format like:
MONTH(D)*100+DAY(D)-MONTH(N)*100-DAY(N)
And then filter by that column value equals 0.
Wow – beautiful answer. Thank you! That’s just what I had in mind, and when I implemented it it worked.
Glad to hear it worked!