Your original question ...

I need to calculate if TODAY is before May 1 every year

... and your refined question ...

I need to know if TODAY is between January 1 and May 1.

... define two different time spans. May 1st is excluded in your original requirement, but included in your refined requirement. You should try to get precise, unambiguous requirements before starting to development.

If I intentionally misinterpret your original requirement, you are asking if today is before every May 1st of every year, and I can simply answer no (i.e. return false) without even looking at the current date or any other input. Simply because today is AFTER last year's May 1st.

Thinking about your original requirement for a second without intentionally misinterpreting it makes clear that you want to know if the current date is in the first four months of the current year, so your requirement could be implemented by simply checking if the current month is between January and April (see Re: How to calculate if today is before May 1 -- oneliner).

Your refined requirement asks for either that OR today being May 1st.

Alexander

--
Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)

In reply to Re^3: How to calculate if today is before May 1 by afoken
in thread How to calculate if today is before May 1 by htmanning

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