Scenario

You would like to calculate someone’s age based on their birthday.

Recipe

Add a date field for the birthday

Add a Date Field called Birthday to an Object. We will use a Person Object for this example.

Set the Field’s defaults to "none" and make the Field required.

Add an equation field

Add an Equation Field called Birthday.

1. Set the Equation Type to "Date."

2. Set the Date Type to “years."

3. Make sure the Result Type is set to "Number," which is the default.

4. Use the following equation which subtracts the birthday from the current date: currentTime() - {Birthday}.
   
   This will only work for birthdates after 1/1/1970. For handling dates prior to 1/1/1970 as well, please see the "Using a Conditional Equation" section below.

5. Be sure the rounding is set to "Round Down" so your users aren't having their birthdays before they've actually happened in real time!

Your Equation Field should look like this:

Test the equation

Add a Person record:

...and verify that the equation has worked:

Optional Features

4.1 Using a Conditional Equation

If you would like to make your Birthday field optional or to add an extra layer of protection against bad data, you can use the following conditional equation:

{Birth Date} > -2208988800 ? currentTime() - {Birth Date} : 0

This allows us to ensure that there is actually a value stored for the Birthday Field before running the calculation. If there is no value for the Birthday field, we set Age in Years to zero. 

The long negative number (-2208988800) is the epoch timestamp of 1/1/1900. This is required as blank date values, when used in an equation, are treated as 1/1/1970, the timestamp used as Knack's "start" date for date values. This equation ensures that any date prior to 1/1/1970 are evaluated the same as values after that date.