Get the current date and time

ServiceNow's GlideDateTime handles server-side date operations but has a critical duality that trips up developers: getValue() returns the UTC database string, while getDisplayValue() returns a timezone-adjusted, locale-formatted string. Most bugs stem from using the wrong method for your context — storing display values in the database corrupts queries, while showing UTC strings confuses users.

When to use this

• Setting datetime fields in Business Rules or Script Includes
• Timestamping records for audit trails or SLA calculations
• Creating date ranges for GlideRecord queries with specific time boundaries
• Scheduled Jobs that need to track execution time or process time-sensitive data

When NOT to use this

• Client-side scripts — use new Date() or call server via GlideAjax
• Simple current timestamp logging — use gs.now() for date-only or gs.nowNoTZ() for simple strings
• Performance-critical loops — instantiating GlideDateTime repeatedly is expensive
• Scoped applications without sufficient privileges — may fail silently

Key behaviors and gotchas

• getValue() returns UTC in format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss — this is what gets stored in datetime database fields
• getDisplayValue() adjusts for current user's timezone and date/time format preferences
• gs.nowDateTime() is identical to new GlideDateTime() — use whichever is more readable
• getMonth() returns 1-12, not 0-11 like JavaScript's Date object
• Always compare dates using getValue() strings — display values vary by user and break comparisons
• addDaysUTC() and addDays() behave differently across daylight saving time boundaries