> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.feathery.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.feathery.io/platform/build-forms/advanced-logic/examples/initialize-date-field.md).

# Initialize Date Field

## Overview

In this example, the rule run on the load of a step and initializes both a date only field and a date+time field to the present date/time.

## Rule Logic

The below logic gets the current date and builds date and date-time values appropriate to initialize the fields.  The fields are only initialized if they do not already have a value set.

```
// Initialize a date and date/time to today and now respectively

// get today's date
const now = new Date();
const today = `${now.getFullYear()}-${(now.getMonth() + 1).toString().padStart(2, '0')}-${now.getDate().toString().padStart(2, '0')}`;

const nowInUtc = `${now.getUTCFullYear()}-${(now.getUTCMonth() + 1).toString().padStart(2, '0')}-${now.getUTCDate().toString().padStart(2, '0')}` + 
`T${now.getUTCHours().toString().padStart(2, '0')}:${now.getUTCMinutes().toString().padStart(2, '0')}:${now.getUTCSeconds().toString().padStart(2, '0')}Z`;

// only initialize the response date if not already set
if (!ResponseDate.value)
  ResponseDate.value = today;

// only initialize the event date and time if not already set - set it in UTC
if (!EventDateTime.value)
  EventDateTime.value = nowInUtc;
```


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