# How to put values like today() into a string?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [October 10, 2021, 9:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506 "2021-10-10T09:48:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![leon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@leon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/leon)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 9:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506/1 "2021-10-10T09:48:19Z")

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For example, if I have a variable like this:

```julia
A = "Dog";
B = "Cat";

```

I can do this:  
`C = "I have both $A and $b";`

How do I do something like the below and add today’s value, e.g., October 10, 2021?  
D = “I walked my $A and $B on $today()”.

Thanks.

---

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**Author:** ![rafael.guerra](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rafael.guerra/32/216610_2.png) [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:01am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506/2 "2021-10-10T10:01:09Z")

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Just add ():  
`D = "I walked my $A and $B on $(today())"`

**NB:** `using Dates`

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**Author:** ![gustaphe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gustaphe/32/18174_2.png) [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:22am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506/3 "2021-10-10T10:22:10Z")

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```julia
julia> "If you want to confuse people, you can interpolate longer expressions: $(begin;a=3;b=a^2;b-1;end)"
"If you want to confuse people, you can interpolate longer expressions: 8"

```

Don’t do this, but the fact that you _can_ is pretty cool.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rafael.guerra](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rafael.guerra/32/216610_2.png) [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:27am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506/4 "2021-10-10T10:27:36Z")

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> [@gustaphe](#):
>
> `$(begin;a=3;b=a^2;b-1;end)`

And `begin`; `end`; could be replaced by ():  
`$((a=3;b=a^2;b-1))`

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**Author:** ![hendri54](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/hendri54/32/9621_2.png) [@hendri54](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/hendri54)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506/5 "2021-10-10T11:47:20Z")

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And

```julia
Dates.format(today(), "U d, YYYY")
"October 10, 2021"

```

does the formatting, returning a String.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@leon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/leon)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-put-values-like-today-into-a-string/69506/6 "2021-10-10T12:32:49Z")

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Many thanks for all the replies. I learned many pieces of important knowledge about Julia.