Date Literals and Relative Date Filtering
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Filter SOQL queries using relative date literals like THIS_MONTH and LAST_N_DAYS
- Explain why relative date literals are preferred over hardcoded dates in reusable queries
Prerequisites: Aggregate Functions and GROUP BY
Common date literals
SOQL ships with a set of built-in date literals — TODAY, YESTERDAY, THIS_WEEK, THIS_MONTH, THIS_YEAR, LAST_N_DAYS:n, NEXT_N_DAYS:n, and more. They're used directly in a WHERE clause against a Date or Datetime field, with no quotes.
Why relative, not hardcoded
A report or dashboard that runs daily or weekly needs its date window to shift automatically. Hardcoding CreatedDate > 2026-01-01 would need manual updates forever; CreatedDate = LAST_N_DAYS:30 always means "the last 30 days," relative to whenever the query actually runs.
This month's open Opportunities
SELECT Id, Name, CloseDate
FROM Opportunity
WHERE CloseDate = THIS_MONTH
AND IsClosed = falseTHIS_MONTH automatically covers the 1st through the last day of whatever month the query happens to run in — no maintenance needed.
Exercise
Write a query returning Leads created in the last 7 days.
Show hint
CreatedDate = LAST_N_DAYS:7
Date Literals and Relative Date Filtering — Quick Check
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Summary
Date literals like TODAY, THIS_MONTH, and LAST_N_DAYS:n let a query's date range stay relative to whenever it runs, instead of hardcoding a date that goes stale.