the first of your examples works fine for me. the second one not so much - but happy to get it going. thanks for help naoto, date formats even in fields have always created issues for me.

k

>>what is the simplest way to express
>>if date() after December 15 2016
>>do this
>>endif
>>
>>tnx
>>Karen
>
>You could compare against a date constant of the format {^yyyy.mm.dd} (note the use of the caret symbol -- specifies yyyy.mm.dd format rather than format that would vary by locale or by SET DATE configuration.)
>
>

if date() > {^2016.12.15} then
>    * some code
>endif

>
>alternatively you could use call the DATE function with the year, month and day value --- DATE(yyyy,mm,dd)
>
>

if date() > date(2016.12.15) then
>    * some code
>endif