HOUR
HOUR(date)
The hour of the day of a date, from 0 to 23, such as for checking that work happens between 08:00 and 17:00. Owl keeps schedules in UTC wall clock, and the hour is read there: a task that starts at 08:00 has HOUR 8 whatever your time zone.
Arguments
| Argument | What to give it |
|---|---|
| date | A date, like [Start date] or [Finish date]. Blank gives blank. |
Examples
Formula=HOUR([Start date])
The hour the task starts: 8 for a task starting at 08:00.
Formula=HOUR([Start date]) >= 8 AND HOUR([Finish date]) <= 17
As a guardrail: work happens between 08:00 and 17:00.
Formula=HOUR([Finish date]) * 60 + MINUTE([Finish date]) <= 4 * 60
TRUE for tasks that finish by 04:00, to the minute.
Reach for something else when
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| The minutes past the hour | MINUTE |
| A date at a time of day | DATE(2026, 3, 2, 8, 30) |
| The hour shown as text | TEXT: TEXT([Start date], "hh:mm") |
| The working time between two dates | WORKDAYS |
Common questions
Why is [Start date] < DATE(2026, 1, 5, 10) FALSE for a task starting at 08:00 that day?
Dates compare by the day, so two times of one day are equal. Compare the hour itself with HOUR, or the working time between the two: WORKDAYS([Start date], DATE(2026, 1, 5, 10)) > 0h is TRUE when the task starts before 10:00. See dates.