# Can't get start date and end date value

**URL:** <https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/cant-get-start-date-and-end-date-value/3172>\
**Category:** CloverDX Platform\
**Created:** [November 12, 2024, 11:17am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/cant-get-start-date-and-end-date-value/3172 "2024-11-12T11:17:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MAKEFLO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@MAKEFLO](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/MAKEFLO)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 11:17am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/cant-get-start-date-and-end-date-value/3172/1 "2024-11-12T11:17:45Z")

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New in CloverDX. I created a Database reader connected to trash just to test if i can use variable date variables, my query below

select ‘${start\_date}’ as start\_date, ‘${end\_date}’ as end\_date

I’m using metadata  
name  
start\_date string  
end\_date string

how come my output is just  
${start\_date} and ${end\_date}

and not calling system date?

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**Author:** ![David\_Pavlis2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@David\_Pavlis2](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/David_Pavlis2)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 9:51pm UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/cant-get-start-date-and-end-date-value/3172/2 "2024-11-12T21:51:09Z")

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Hi Makeflo,

What exactly are you trying to achieve ? This construct ${…name…} in Clover is used to reference parameters, which are static values defined at transformation graph level - think of them as user defined constants.

I don’t understand, what do you mean by system date ?

David

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**Author:** ![MAKEFLO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@MAKEFLO](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/MAKEFLO)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/cant-get-start-date-and-end-date-value/3172/3 "2024-11-13T00:09:51Z")

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Hi David, its all good now. my mistake is that there is no explicit values in Parameters.