Datetime Component

ESPHome has support for components to create a datetime entity. A datetime entity currently represents a date that can be set by the user/frontend.

Note

Requires Home Assistant 2024.4 or newer.

Base Datetime Configuration

All datetime in ESPHome have a name and an optional icon.

# Example datetime configuration
name: Date to check

# Optional variables:
icon: "mdi:calendar-alert"

Configuration variables:

  • name (Required, string): The name for the datetime.

    Note

    If you have a friendly_name set for your device and you want the datetime to use that name, you can set name: None.

  • icon (Optional, icon): Manually set the icon to use for the datetime in the frontend.

  • internal (Optional, boolean): Mark this component as internal. Internal components will not be exposed to the frontend (like Home Assistant). Only specifying an id without a name will implicitly set this to true.

  • disabled_by_default (Optional, boolean): If true, then this entity should not be added to any client’s frontend, (usually Home Assistant) without the user manually enabling it (via the Home Assistant UI). Defaults to false.

  • entity_category (Optional, string): The category of the entity. See https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/core/entity/#generic-properties for a list of available options. Set to "" to remove the default entity category.

  • time_id (Required, ID): The ID of the time entity. Automatically set to the ID of a time component if only a single one is defined.

MQTT Options:

Time and DateTime Options:

  • on_time (Optional, Automations and Templates): Automation to run when the current datetime or time matches the current state. Only valid on time or datetime types.

Automation

You can access the most recent state as a ESPTime object by id(datetime_id).state_as_esptime()

on_value

This automation will be triggered when a new value is published. In Lambdas you can get the value as a ESPTime object from the trigger with x.

datetime:
  - platform: template
    # ...
    on_value:
      then:
        - lambda: |-
            if(x.hour >= 12) {
              ESP_LOGD("main", "Updated hour is later or equal to 12");
            } else {
              ESP_LOGD("main", "Updated hour is earlier than 12");
            }

Configuration variables: See Automation.

Date Automation

datetime.date.set Action

This is an Action for setting a datetime date state. The date provided can be in one of 3 formats:

# String date
- datetime.date.set:
    id: my_date
    date: "2023-12-04"

# Individual date parts
- datetime.date.set:
    id: my_date
    date:
      year: 2023
      month: 12
      day: 4

# Using a lambda
- datetime.date.set:
    id: my_date
    date: !lambda |-
      // Return an ESPTime struct
      return {.day_of_month: 4, .month: 12, .year: 2023};

Configuration variables:

  • id (Required, ID): The ID of the datetime to set.

  • date (Required, string, date parts, templatable): The value to set the datetime to.

lambda calls

From lambdas, you can call several methods on all datetimes to do some advanced stuff (see the full API Reference for more info).

  • .make_call(): Make a call for updating the datetime value.

    // Within lambda, set the date to 2024-02-25
auto call = id(my_date).make_call();
call.set_date("2024-02-25");
call.perform();

    Check the API reference for information on the methods that are available for the DateCall object.

  • .year: Retrieve the current year of the date. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .month: Retrieve the current month of the date. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .day: Retrieve the current day of the date. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .state_as_esptime(): Retrieve the current value of the datetime as a ESPTime object.

    // For example, create a custom log message when a value is received:
ESP_LOGI("main", "Value of my datetime: %04d-%02d-%02d", id(my_date).year, id(my_date).month, id(my_date).day);

Time Automation

datetime.time.set Action

This is an Action for setting a datetime time state. The time provided can be in one of 3 formats:

# String time
- datetime.time.set:
    id: my_time
    time: "12:34:56"

# Individual time parts
- datetime.time.set:
    id: my_time
    time:
      hour: 12
      minute: 34
      second: 56

# Using a lambda
- datetime.time.set:
    id: my_time
    time: !lambda |-
      // Return an ESPTime struct
      return {.second: 56, .minute: 34, .hour: 12};

Configuration variables:

  • id (Required, ID): The ID of the datetime to set.

  • time (Required, string, time parts, templatable): The value to set the datetime to.

lambda calls

From lambdas, you can call several methods on all datetimes to do some advanced stuff (see the full API Reference for more info).

  • .make_call(): Make a call for updating the datetime value.

    // Within lambda, set the time to 12:34:56
auto call = id(my_time).make_call();
call.set_time("12:34:56");
call.perform();

    Check the API reference for information on the methods that are available for the TimeCall object.

  • .hour: Retrieve the current hour of the time. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .minute: Retrieve the current minute of the time. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .second: Retrieve the current second of the time. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .state_as_esptime(): Retrieve the current value of the datetime as a ESPTime object.

    // For example, create a custom log message when a value is received:
ESP_LOGI("main", "Value of my datetime: %0d:%02d:%02d", id(my_time).hour, id(my_time).minute, id(my_time).second);

DateTime Automation

datetime.datetime.set Action

This is an Action for setting a datetime datetime state. The datetime provided can be in one of 3 formats:

# String datetime
- datetime.time.set:
    id: my_datetime
    datetime: "2024-12-31 12:34:56"

# Individual datetime parts
- datetime.datetime.set:
    id: my_datetime
    datetime:
      year: 2024
      month: 12
      day: 31
      hour: 12
      minute: 34
      second: 56

# Using a lambda
- datetime.datetime.set:
    id: my_datetime
    datetime: !lambda |-
      // Return an ESPTime struct
      return {.second: 56, .minute: 34, .hour: 12, .day_of_month: 31, .month: 12, .year: 2024};

Configuration variables:

  • id (Required, ID): The ID of the datetime to set.

  • datetime (Required, string, datetime parts, templatable): The value to set the datetime to.

Lambda calls

For more complex use cases, several methods are available for use on datetimes from within lambdas. See the full API Reference for more information.

  • .make_call(): Make a call for updating the datetime value.

    // Within lambda, set the datetime to 2024-12-31 12:34:56
auto call = id(my_datetime).make_call();
call.set_date("2024-12-31 12:34:56");
call.perform();

    Check the API reference for information on the methods that are available for the DateTimeCall object.

  • .year: Retrieve the current year of the datetime. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .month: Retrieve the current month of the datetime. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .day: Retrieve the current day of the datetime. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .hour: Retrieve the current hour of the datetime. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .minute: Retrieve the current minute of the datetime. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .second: Retrieve the current second of the datetime. It will be 0 if no value has been set.

  • .state_as_esptime(): Retrieve the current value of the datetime as a ESPTime object.

    // For example, create a custom log message when a value is received:
ESP_LOGI("main", "Value of my datetime: %04d-%02d-%02d %0d:%02d:%02d",
         id(my_datetime).year, id(my_datetime).month, id(my_datetime).day,
         id(my_datetime).hour, id(my_datetime).minute, id(my_datetime).second);

See Also