How do I discover the quarter of a given date

Question

The following are the Quarters for a financial year

April to June          - Q1
July to Sep            - Q2
Oct to Dec             - Q3
Jan to March           - Q4

If the month of an input date lies as above I need the output for in terms of Quarter number.

For Example,

If I give an input date (say january 2nd) , I need the output as Q4.

If I give input as (Jun 5), output should give Q1.

Based on input date I need the Quarter number.

Can you do this from scratch, whether a built in Library exists or not? — Shamim Hafiz - MSFT, Jan 02 '12 at 07:12
Related thread - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1947191/nearest-completed-quarter — KV Prajapati, Jan 02 '12 at 07:22
@AVD: The above thread is not the same as i expected the result interms of Quarter number for any input date provided. — venkat, Jan 02 '12 at 07:28
Why would the first three months of a year be the fourth quarter? — Aaron Franke, Dec 06 '21 at 17:28

wezzix · Answer 1 · 2018-11-23T12:41:24.110

If you prefer short and concise solutions without branching and arrays, here is my preferred solution.

Normal Quarter:

public static int GetQuarter(this DateTime date)
{
    return (date.Month + 2)/3;
}

Financial Year Quarter:

public static int GetFinancialQuarter(this DateTime date)
{
    return (date.AddMonths(-3).Month + 2)/3;
}

Integer division will truncate decimals, giving you an integer result. Place methods into a static class and you will have an extension method to be used as follows:

date.GetQuarter()
date.GetFinancialQuarter()

See dotnetfiddle

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 23 '18 at 11:40

31

You can simply write an extension method to DateTime

public static int GetQuarter(this DateTime date)
{
    if (date.Month >= 4 && date.Month <= 6)
        return 1;
    else if (date.Month >= 7 && date.Month <= 9)
        return 2;
    else if (date.Month >= 10 && date.Month <= 12)
        return 3;
    else 
        return 4;
}

and use it as

DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
dt.GetQuarter();

edited Nov 23 '18 at 11:40

Poul Bak

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answered Jan 02 '12 at 07:15

Haris Hasan

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Thanks for your method. If the above method results '4' as output for january month then i need the output with some extra effort as Q4, Q1, Q2, Q3. Just rotation of these Quarters in a order wise based on the month of a datetime. How can i get? – venkat Jan 02 '12 at 07:24
Your requirement is not clear to me with your comment. Can you explain or better post it in a different question? The above piece of code answer your current question – Haris Hasan Jan 02 '12 at 08:08

score 22 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 02 '17 at 14:34

The most simple and consistent way of achieving this:

Regular

Math.Ceiling(date.Month / 3.0)

Fiscal (just shifted up with a mod by 2+1 quarters)

Math.Ceiling(date.Month / 3.0 + 2) % 4 + 1

01.01.2016 00:00:00 -> Q1 -> FQ4
01.02.2016 00:00:00 -> Q1 -> FQ4
01.03.2016 00:00:00 -> Q1 -> FQ4
01.04.2016 00:00:00 -> Q2 -> FQ1
01.05.2016 00:00:00 -> Q2 -> FQ1
01.06.2016 00:00:00 -> Q2 -> FQ1
01.07.2016 00:00:00 -> Q3 -> FQ2
01.08.2016 00:00:00 -> Q3 -> FQ2
01.09.2016 00:00:00 -> Q3 -> FQ2
01.10.2016 00:00:00 -> Q4 -> FQ3
01.11.2016 00:00:00 -> Q4 -> FQ3
01.12.2016 00:00:00 -> Q4 -> FQ3

Result is a value between 1 and 4. Nearly any environment has a CEIL function, so this should work on any language as well.

This looks good! but let's say I want a different start date. lets say `August` instead of `April`? Which value should I change? Thanks! — tastebuds, Sep 06 '19 at 10:00

score 19 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 09 '18 at 16:16

19

This is for the "normal year". I think you can adapt the sample:

string.Format("Q{0}", (date.Month + 2)/3);

edited Sep 09 '18 at 16:16

Uwe Keim

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answered Jan 02 '12 at 07:12

Dominik

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24

It doesn't fulfil the question. – Maitrey684 Nov 23 '18 at 07:40

score 13 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 09 '18 at 16:16

13

public static int GetQuarter(DateTime date)
{
    int[] quarters = new int[] { 4,4,4,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3 };
    return quarters[date.Month-1];
}

edited Sep 09 '18 at 16:16

Uwe Keim

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answered Jul 21 '14 at 09:18

Max Kilovatiy

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please elaborate on your answer with some explanation to help others in the future when they see your code (after a Google search) – Our Man in Bananas Jul 21 '14 at 09:48
1

Most efficient answer +1 (if array declared static) – JanW Apr 16 '15 at 09:24

score 8 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 08 '13 at 10:02

Extension method and less comparisons:

public static class DateTimeExtension
{
    public static int GetQuarter(this DateTime dateTime)
    {
        if (dateTime.Month <= 3)
            return 1;

        if (dateTime.Month <= 6)
            return 2;

        if (dateTime.Month <= 9)
            return 3;

        return 4;
    }
}

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 09 '13 at 07:38

6

int CurrentQuarter = (int)Math.Floor(((decimal)DateTime.Today.Month + 2) / 3);

or change the DateTime.Today to required date.

answered Jul 09 '13 at 07:38

ALT

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Laszlo T · Answer 8 · 2012-01-02T12:50:57.693

4

in sql, it's simply

((((month(@mydate)-1)/3)+3) % 4) + 1

check it with this:

declare @mydate datetime
set @mydate = '2011-01-01'
while @mydate <= '2011-12-31'
    begin
    print ((((month(@mydate)-1)/3)+3) % 4) + 1
    set @mydate = dateadd(month, 1, @mydate)
    end

Or if you want to do it in .net, it's like

String.Format("Q{0}", ((((date.Month-1)/3)+3) % 4) + 1);

edited Jan 02 '12 at 12:50

answered Jan 02 '12 at 12:44

Laszlo T

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Buvy · Answer 9 · 2021-01-20T23:28:03.927

2

Now that you have relational patterns in C# it can easily be written in a single switch expression

public static string FiscalQuarter(this DateTime date)
{
    var qtr = date.Month switch
    {
        < 4 => 4,
        < 7 => 1,
        < 10 => 2,
        _ => 3
    };
    return $"Q{qtr}";
}

edited Jan 20 '21 at 23:28

answered Jan 20 '21 at 22:48

Buvy

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16

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 06 '21 at 17:26

2

We have the following quarters in a year

1 = (0 or 1 or 2)/3 + 1

2 = (3 or 4 or 5)/3 + 1

3 = (6 or 7 or 8)/3 + 1

4 = (9 or 10 or 11)/3 + 1

public static int GetQuarter(this DateTime source)
{
   return (source.Month - 1) / 3 + 1;
}

answered Oct 06 '21 at 17:26

mohamed.dhifi

51
2

as simple and fast as it could be – lnaie Feb 16 '23 at 11:24

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Feb 09 '16 at 17:24

1

You can simply do this:

for (int i = 1; i <= 12; i++) { 
    Console.WriteLine("Month {0} - Q{1}", i, Math.Ceiling((i <= 3 ? 12 - i + 1 : i - 3) / 3M));
}

The output will be:

edited Feb 09 '16 at 17:24

Chuck Conway

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answered Dec 29 '15 at 11:58

boossss

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forget the cast to int of the Math.Ceiling (in the image), I was doing some tests and forgot to remove it. – boossss Dec 29 '15 at 13:12

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 10 '18 at 18:11

This method allows you to specify the start month of the quarter and also provides the year(s) for the period as a whole.

    public string GetQuarterPeriod(DateTime date, int quarterStartMonth)
    {
        var quarterDateOffset = date.AddMonths(1 - quarterStartMonth);
        return $"Q{Math.Ceiling((decimal)quarterDateOffset.Month / 3)} {quarterDateOffset.Year}" 
               + (quarterStartMonth == 1 ? "" : $"/{quarterDateOffset.Year + 1}");
    }

Giving:

GetQuarterPeriod(new DateTime(2018, 4, 1), 4) -> "Q1 2018/2019"
GetQuarterPeriod(new DateTime(2018, 1, 1), 1) -> "Q1 2018"

Function accounts for the fact that if the month is January (1) it is constrained to a single year.

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 11 '20 at 20:06

I came here looking to create a DateTime for the first day of a given a quarter and year (which is understandably the opposite of the question above, but related) and adopted @wezzix's answer above to create:

public DateTime GetFirstDayOfQuarterFromYearAndQuarter(int year, int quarter)
{
    var month = 3 * quarter - 2;

    return new DateTime(year, month, 1);
}

Ali Adravi · Answer 14 · 2022-01-10T20:23:25.697

1

why not simply use Math.Ceiling to get quarter and then decide what you want for a particular quarter, see this:

var quarter = (int)System.Math.Ceiling((decimal)DateTime.Now.Month/3);
var arrayPosition = new int[] { 4, 1, 2, 3 };
var result = arrayPosition[quarter - 1];

edited Jan 10 '22 at 20:23

answered Jan 10 '22 at 20:10

Ali Adravi

21,707
9
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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Dec 26 '20 at 22:28

"Data structures OR Algorithms" (i.e. Nicolaus Wirth's "Algorithms and Data Structures" done right). I thus would avoid any calculation and instead would just look it up.

private static readonly Dictionary<int, string> FiscalQuarters = new Dictionary<int, string>
{
        {1, "Q4"}, {2, "Q4"}, {3, "Q4"}, 
        {4, "Q1"}, {5, "Q1"}, {6, "Q1"}, 
        {7, "Q2"}, {8, "Q2"}, {9, "Q2"}, 
        {10, "Q3"}, {11, "Q3"}, {12, "Q3"}
};

public static void Main()
{
    var a = new DateTime(2020, 1, 26);      
    Console.WriteLine(FiscalQuarters[a.Month]);
}

For further reading just google "time dimension table"...

How do I discover the quarter of a given date

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