trying to set the date between two options to the minimum

[Una Horne]

basically, i have a task that needs to (once autopopulated) set the due date to either tuesday or friday depending on which one is closer. i have no issues with making it populate to tuesday OR friday with {{now.withNextDayOfWeek("XXX")}}, but i know there is a function that can be used "min" to make it decide which one to assign it to. is there any solution to this? ive tried:

{{MIN(now.withNextDayOfWeek("TUE"), now.withNextDayOfWeek("FRI"))}}{{(now.withNextDayOfWeek("TUE"), now.withNextDayOfWeek("FRI"))MIN}}{{now.withNextDayOfWeek("TUE"),("FRI").min}}

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Una Horne 

Your syntax is not correct for using the min function...

The min function may be used with the long, format of a math expression or with a list of values (either numbers or dates / times).

One way to solve what you asked is to create a list of dates to use the min function:

{{now.withNextDayOfWeek("TUE").jiraDate.concat(",").concat(now.withNextDayOfWeek("FRI").jiraDate).split(",").toDate.min}}

How that works:

• starting with {{now}} get the next Tuesday, formatting it as text
• concatenate that with a comma to make list separation easier
• concatenate that with the next Friday, formatting it as text
• split the values back into a list
• convert the text to dates
• and finally the min function will work to find the date

Kind regard,
Bill

[Una Horne]

wow, this looks like it worked!! ill know for sure if i try the rule again on friday. thank you so much @Bill Sheboy ! incredible :)

[Bill Sheboy]

FYI, another way to do this is with a conditional expression:

{{if(now.format("E").match("(Tue|Wed|Thu)").length().gt(0), now.withNextDayOfWeek("FRI").jiraDate, now.withNextDayOfWeek("TUE").jiraDate)}}

If we know today's day-of-week is Tuesday, we know we want the next Friday.  Same thing with Wednesday and Thursday. 

All other days lead us to the next Tuesday.

[Una Horne]

@Bill Sheboy i am fascinated with this, i am at the beginning of my jira experience. i have zero coding background. is there a resource you recommend for people like me where i can learn this kind of stuff? i have another thing im trying to do, and i get the feeling it is going to involve a more in-depth solution rather than my sloppy use of smart values pasted together like i tried before lol

[Bill Sheboy]

If you are up for some reading and experimentation, here are three automation articles I wrote (with the last one showing some more advanced topics):

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Automation-concepts-Learning-to-write-and-use-rules/ba-p/2901393

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Automation-concepts-How-to-ask-a-community-question-or-not/ba-p/2683827

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Automation-concepts-Dynamic-searches-within-a-list/ba-p/2834235

[Una Horne]

ill definitely be reading up on these, thank you so much!