Before test

This test checks whether a date or instant is before another. It is the opposite of the after test.

When comparing dates, this test first converts both values to an instant based on the time zone set at the application level. Then it compares the instants using the same rules as relational operators to ensure consistency with the less than operation.

For more information about how dates are converted to instants, see the section on Date-time conversion.

How does it differ from the less-than test?

This test converts its arguments to instants before comparing them, while the less than test simply fails if the arguments are incompatible.

Syntax

This test has the following syntax:

/*<value>*/ before /*<instant>*/

To negate the test, you can write:

/*<value>*/ is not before /*<instant>*/

Parameters

These are the supported parameters:

value

Date|DateTime

The date time to compare with the reference value.

reference

Date|DateTime

The date time to compare against.

Examples

Here is a basic example of how to compare two dates:

yesterday is before  "2025-05-08" // true

You can use any valid ISO 8601 date-time string as an argument.