# Tutorial: check if a date is in the future

**URL:** <https://forum.seatable.com/t/tutorial-check-if-a-date-is-in-the-future/2327>\
**Category:** Formulas\
**Tags:** formula, tutorial\
**Created:** [April 29, 2023, 9:49am UTC](https://forum.seatable.com/t/tutorial-check-if-a-date-is-in-the-future/2327 "2023-04-29T09:49:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cdb](https://forum.seatable.com/user_avatar/forum.seatable.com/cdb/32/7_2.png) [@cdb](https://forum.seatable.com/u/cdb)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 9:49am UTC](https://forum.seatable.com/t/tutorial-check-if-a-date-is-in-the-future/2327/1 "2023-04-29T09:49:12Z")

</div>

Currently, SeaTable does not offer a validation of date columns. But sporadically, I want to see if a date value is in the future. Here is a simple way to validate this input with a formula-column and this is how it looks like:

![image](https://forum.seatable.io/uploads/default/original/2X/6/67b5e5ce2ce83d17ca7d8f15e0dc57dae1b1daa5.png)

The `date_check` checks for three things: (of course this could be extended as much as you like)

- if date is not filled, return -
- if date is in the future, return future
- else, return ok

Here is the formula I used in `date_check`:  
`if({date}, if( dateDif({date}, today()) < 0, "future", "ok"), "-")`

**Hint:** if you think an automation (Enterprise only) can be used to “clear the date input”, I have to disappoint you. Formula columns cannot be monitored by an automation. But an idea was already submitted to add such a validation into SeaTable core: [SeaTable Feature Requests Board](https://ideas.seatable.io/r/XG12yO2uQ5S0bEWfzlj1TQ).