bcquality/community/knowledge/appsource/use-invariant-date-literals.md

bc-version	domain	keywords	technologies	countries	application-area
all	appsource	date-literal invariant-date dateformula localization appsourcecop	al	w1	all

Use invariant date literals

Description

Write fixed dates in AL with the invariant yyyymmddD syntax. A locale-dependent text value parsed with Evaluate can change meaning or fail under another user's regional settings, which makes the Marketplace extension unreliable across markets.

Best Practice

Represent a fixed date directly as an AL date literal, such as 20250131D. Use CalcDate with a date formula when the value is relative rather than fixed.

See sample: use-invariant-date-literals.good.al.

Anti Pattern

Building a fixed date by passing localized text such as 01/02/2025 to Evaluate. Detection signal: Evaluate converting a hard-coded or label-backed formatted string into a Date.

See sample: use-invariant-date-literals.bad.al.