SwiftQL v1.4.3 gives text time values a full set of typed constructors for SQLite’s date and time functions, replacing the single unixepoch-only surface that shipped before.
Constructors for date, time, datetime, julianday, unixepoch, and strftime
Any String or String? expression that holds an ISO-8601 time value now has date, time, datetime, julianDay, unixEpoch, and strftime methods. Each takes zero or more XLDateModifier values:
let firstOfNextMonth = sql { _ in
Select("2026-07-19 12:30:45".datetime(.months(1), .startOfMonth))
}
This renders datetime('2026-07-19 12:30:45', '+1 months', 'start of month'). SQLite applies modifiers left to right, and the Swift argument order matches, so .months(1) followed by .startOfMonth reads the same way it evaluates: add a month, then snap to the start of that month.
XLDateModifier
The modifiers themselves are a new ordered type, XLDateModifier, covering everything available in SQLite 3.42.0 and later:
- Relative offsets:
.days(_:),.hours(_:),.minutes(_:),.seconds(_:),.months(_:),.years(_:), each taking a signed count - Anchoring:
.startOfDay,.startOfMonth,.startOfYear,.weekday(_:) .ceiling,.floor,.localTime,.utc,.subsecond
A modifier renders as a quoted string literal, so it can’t inject SQL. A few input-interpretation modifiers whose availability varies by SQLite release (unixepoch, julianday, auto) aren’t exposed as named members; they stay reachable through XLDateModifier(_:) for callers who know their target version:
date.date(XLDateModifier("unixepoch"))
// date(:date, 'unixepoch')
Date component accessors
year(), month(), day(), hour(), minute(), second(), dayOfYear(), dayOfWeek(), and weekOfYear() extract a single component as an Int, reinterpreting the matching strftime substitution:
date.year()
// CAST(strftime('%Y', :date) AS INTEGER)
An optional receiver preserves NULL throughout — every constructor and component accessor above has a String?-in, T?-out overload.
Date comparison (<, <=, >, >=, ==, !=) and julian-day subtraction (-) needed no new operators at all: they reuse the library’s existing generic XLComparable and floating-point operators over the results of these constructors, since ISO-8601 text already sorts chronologically.
date.julianDay() - date.julianDay(.days(-1))
// (julianday(:date) - julianday(:date, '-1 days'))
A behavior change: unixEpoch(_:) returns TimeInterval
The new unixEpoch(_:) constructor returns TimeInterval rather than Int. Once .subsecond is in the modifier list, SQLite returns fractional seconds, which an Int result can’t represent, so the return type has to accommodate the whole modifier surface rather than just the no-modifier case.
This only affects the new spelling. The legacy unixepoch(date:modifiers:) function and toUnixTimestamp() method are both untouched and keep returning Int for their no-modifier case, so existing call sites keep compiling and behaving as before.
Conformance
The syntax.expression.date-functions record in the SQLite conformance inventory moves from partial to supported, backed by new rendering and real-SQLite execution evidence. That takes the inventory’s supported-feature count from 96 to 97 out of 105 tracked records, with evidence records going from 139 to 141.