Date.AddQuarters

Date

Adds a specified number of quarters to a date value.

Examples on this page use shared sample tables. View them to understand the input data before reading the examples below.

Syntax

Date.AddQuarters(dateTime as any, numberOfQuarters as number) as any

Parameters

NameTypeRequiredDescription
dateTimeanyYesThe date, datetime, or datetimezone value to add quarters to.
numberOfQuartersnumberYesThe number of quarters to add. Use negative values to subtract quarters.

Return Value

anyThe date resulting from adding the specified number of quarters to the input value.

Remarks

Date.AddQuarters adds or subtracts a number of quarters (3-month periods) from a date, datetime, or datetimezone value. One quarter equals three months, so Date.AddQuarters(d, 1) is equivalent to Date.AddMonths(d, 3). Passing a negative numberOfQuarters subtracts quarters. The return type matches the input type.

End-of-month clamping applies: if the resulting month has fewer days than the input day, the result is clamped to the last day of that month. For example, adding one quarter to January 31 gives April 30, because April has only 30 days. This is the same behavior as Date.AddMonths.

Date.AddQuarters is most useful when working with fiscal or calendar quarter logic — for example, computing quarter-end deadlines, rolling forward subscription periods by quarter, or building prior-quarter comparison columns. For shifting by individual months, use Date.AddMonths directly, which is slightly more explicit about the unit.

Examples

Example 1: Add one quarter to a date column

Table.AddColumn(
    Table.SelectColumns(
        Table.FirstN(Sales, 5),
        {"OrderID", "OrderDate"}
    ),
    "WarrantyEnd", each Date.AddQuarters([OrderDate], 1), type date
)
Result
OrderID
OrderDate
WarrantyEnd
111/15/20244/15/2024
221/18/20244/18/2024
332/1/20245/1/2024
442/10/20245/10/2024
553/5/20246/5/2024

Example 2: Subtract two quarters from a date

#table(
    type table [ReferenceDate = date, TwoQuartersBack = date],
    {{#date(2024, 9, 30), Date.AddQuarters(#date(2024, 9, 30), -2)}}
)
Result
ReferenceDate
TwoQuartersBack
19/30/20243/30/2024

Example 3: Demonstrate end-of-month clamping behavior

#table(
    type table [InputDate = date, PlusOneQuarter = date],
    {
        {#date(2024, 1, 31), Date.AddQuarters(#date(2024, 1, 31), 1)},
        {#date(2024, 3, 31), Date.AddQuarters(#date(2024, 3, 31), 1)},
        {#date(2024, 5, 31), Date.AddQuarters(#date(2024, 5, 31), 1)}
    }
)
Result
InputDate
PlusOneQuarter
11/31/20244/30/2024
23/31/20246/30/2024
35/31/20248/31/2024

Compatibility

Power BI Desktop Power BI Service Excel Desktop Excel Online Dataflows Fabric Notebooks