Date arithmetic

Dates support arithmetic, which makes many everyday calculations simple.

Adding an integer to a date moves it forward by that many days. The result is a new date, with the month and year adjusted automatically:

say Date.new(2026, 6, 27) + 7; # 2026-07-04

Subtracting one date from another gives the number of days between them:

say Date.new(2026, 7, 4) - Date.new(2026, 6, 27); # 7

For larger steps, the later and earlier methods accept named arguments such as :days, :months, or :years:

say Date.new(2026, 6, 27).later(:days(10));    # 2026-07-07
say Date.new(2026, 6, 27).earlier(:months(2)); # 2026-04-27

These methods keep the arithmetic correct across month and year boundaries, so you never have to worry about how many days a particular month has.

Practice

Complete the quizzes that cover the contents of this topic.