How can I work with dates in Vensim PLE?

[slanefic]

Hi, I don't know work with dates in Vensim PLE. Is it possible? Thank you very much

[Administrator]

Can you be a bit more specific? How exactly do you want to use dates?

Tony.

[slanefic]

I have to do a model about banks. I have to indicate in my model the dates when I get money at the bank , because I can get money or not deppending of the date.

I am Spanish, my English is a little bad. I expect that you understanding me.

Thank you very much

[Administrator]

You cannot work with dates directly, but it is easy to just look at month number, year number, day number etc.

Then you can use a simple "if then else" statement to trigger money coming in. The "Modulo" function is also useful.

Tony.

[slanefic]

Then, I have to use variables to indicate days, months and year... or not?

[LAUJJL]

Yes, you have to use variables to represent days, months and years.
It is a weekness of Vensim, to my opinion not to have a built in calendar, where you could define an auxiliary as a date.
But I think it is due to the strict continuous way Vensim works.
Dates are not continuous.
Anyhow that would be indeed very practical to have a calendar built in.

J.J. Laublé