# Updating Current Time Tag

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/updating-current-time-tag/32511>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition80\
**Created:** [February 21, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/updating-current-time-tag/32511 "2020-02-21T20:38:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![StephenBarnes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@StephenBarnes](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/StephenBarnes)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/updating-current-time-tag/32511/1 "2020-02-21T20:38:26Z")

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I feel like this is really easy but I can’t quite get it on Ignition 8.0. What I am trying to do is create a memory tag that just updates the current time. I know the System current minute tag is available but I want the value to be on a memory tag so I can create a script on the memory tag. The function I used in 7.9.10 is dateFormat(now(), “h:mm:ss a”) and I scripted that on the expression part of the tag but where would I be able to add an expression on the tag for 8.0 to accomplish the same thing? How can I bind the value of the tag to be the current time/minute that updates every second?

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**Author:** ![grietveld](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/grietveld/32/6984_2.png) [@grietveld](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/grietveld)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/updating-current-time-tag/32511/2 "2020-02-21T20:44:27Z")

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I had some odd behavior when I copy pasted it from the forum, I’m wondering if I grabbed an extra space or something, but the below option should work.

```auto
dateFormat(now(100), 'hh:mm:ss a')

```

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/2X/d/d3e5f3aa3c17b6b917dc25ca9a4ba7de70ab7a88.png)

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**Author:** ![witman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d2c977/32.png) [@witman](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/witman)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/updating-current-time-tag/32511/3 "2020-02-21T20:55:01Z")

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> [@StephenBarnes](#):
>
> “h:mm:ss a”

If your code had curly quotes in it (`“”`)like the ones in your post, these would prevent it from working. Expressions must use single or double straight quotes (`'` or `"`).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![osolorzano](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/osolorzano/32/6432_2.png) [@osolorzano](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/osolorzano)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/updating-current-time-tag/32511/4 "2020-02-21T21:55:28Z")

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If you open the Tag Editor for the tag and set the Value Source to Expression (or just create an Expression tag) instead of memory, you can then put `dateFormat(now(1000),"h:mm:ss a")` where it says Expression.