How does iDBQuery interpret vague date ranges like "last quarter" or "recently"?
iDBQuery translates relative dates like "last quarter", "YTD", or "the past 30 days" into concrete start and end dates, using today's date and your fiscal calendar if you've defined one. It states the exact range it used and cites the rows, so you can confirm "last quarter" meant the period you had in mind.
Plain-language questions are full of loose time references, and the risk is that the tool's idea of "last month" differs from yours. iDBQuery removes that guesswork by being explicit.
- Resolves to concrete dates. "Last quarter" becomes a specific start and end date; "the last 6 weeks" is computed from the current date; "YTD" runs from the year's start to today.
- Respects your calendar. If you've told iDBQuery your fiscal year, quarter-based phrases follow it rather than the calendar year.
- Shows its interpretation. The answer states the exact window it used, so there's no ambiguity about whether "this year" included the current partial month.
When a phrase is genuinely unclear — "recently" could mean days or months — iDBQuery either picks a reasonable, stated default or asks. Combined with visible SQL and row-level citations, this means you can always verify the date filter behind a number and adjust it in a follow-up like "make that the last 90 days instead." It's a small detail that prevents a very common category of quietly wrong answers.
Updated 2026-06-22