# See how old a value is?
**URL:** https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438
**Category:** Questions & Help
**Created:** [March 10, 2023, 12:35pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438 "2023-03-10T12:35:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@janrikard](https://community.homey.app/u/janrikard)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 12:35pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438/1 "2023-03-10T12:35:42Z")
Hello
Is it possible in a flow to se how old a value is?
I need to loadbalance my car charger but that works really bad if the loadvalues are old.
/Rikard
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438/2 "2023-03-10T22:52:43Z")
~~There’s no ‘last\_updated’ or ‘last\_changed’ info available AFAIK. This would make a great Feature Request though!~~
Edit: Turns out there definately is a last\_changed value available 🙃
So ignore the info below pls
* * *
It’s sort of viewable in my.homey.app and go to insights
- You can create a flow to **store** the last changed time.
You have to create a text variable;
Flow example:
Result:
- Or you can create a flow which starts or restarts a **stopwatch**
I use [Chronograph](https://homey.app/en-gb/app/nl.fellownet.chronograph/Chronograph/), to create this:
Result:
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### Author:  [@Arie\_J\_Godschalk](https://community.homey.app/u/Arie_J_Godschalk)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2023, 6:55am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438/3 "2023-03-12T06:55:44Z")
What kind of value is is Janrikard?
Are there insights for them"?
If there are insights, you can use the [Device Capabilities](https://homey.app/a/nl.qluster-it.DeviceCapabilities/) flowcard: Retrieve insights from 0 minutes ago.
This works for Yes/No and for Numbers.
If you need it for text or there are no insights, you need to wait till next week till i create the new flowcard: Get Capability info, which will work for text also and fields without inisghts.
> [@Peter\_Kawa](#):
>
> There’s no ‘last\_updated’ or ‘last\_changed’ info available AFAIK.
All Capabilities have a last\_changed field, you can see those through HomeyScript for instance:
Those numbers are UTC ticks and with the BLL format card, you can read and format its value:
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2023, 7:53am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438/4 "2023-03-12T07:53:51Z")
> [@Arie\_J\_Godschalk](#):
>
> new flowcard: Get Capability info, which will work for text also and fields without inisghts.
Ah great news!
> [@Arie\_J\_Godschalk](#):
>
> All Capabilities have a last\_changed field,
Aaaaahh yes ofcourse, I had not enough coffee appearantly.
We even have [a flow](https://community.homey.app/t/the-flow-exchange-r-exchange-your-flows-with-others/68981/13) to check on sensors last\_changed value
---
### Author:  [@Arie\_J\_Godschalk](https://community.homey.app/u/Arie_J_Godschalk)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2023, 9:52am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438/5 "2023-03-12T09:52:04Z")
I’ve also thought of (finally) a Time format function, which i wil build into BLL and its codings and expressions.
That function, however it will look like when done, will allow input which is converted into a time format.
Plainly said: it will allow large numbers to be converted into timestamps like 125hours, 10 minutes, 20 sec, results in a stamp like 125:10:20.
That will make it easy to use large millesecond numbers into usable stamps, kinda like i added to the chronograph apps.
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2023, 11:34am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/see-how-old-a-value-is/77438/6 "2023-03-12T11:34:53Z")
OK @janrikard and @Arie_J_Godschalk ,
Arie gave me some ideas 🙃 , and I couldn’t resist, in the meantime I made it possible to retreive the last\_changed time in a tag, with a HomeyScript code and the flow below.
The script takes a capability as argument, and returns all [a\_capability] values as JSON (_yes I know, it should be limited to a device somehow, but it runs fine up til now_)
In this example, I chose `meter_power` as argument
_To find the correct capability, go to [https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices](https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/devices), and look for your device_
#### - flow
#### - code
```auto
// [code to get last_changed times from a capability (as JSON), with a capability as argument]
let array = [];
const myArgument = args[0];
const devices = await Homey.devices.getDevices({ filter: {capabilities: myArgument} });
_.forEach(devices, device => {
array.push('"' + device.name.replace(/Σ|\/|\(|\)|\ |\.|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|0|€/gi, "_") + '":"' + device.capabilitiesObj[myArgument]?.lastUpdated?.substring(0,25) + '"');
});
// NOTE: the device.name.replace() is for JSON format and is done here, while the UTC timestamp has a decimal point which must not be replaced
//oldest date on top sort array = ["time_stamp device", "time_stamp device", "time_stamp device"]
const array_sorted = array.slice().sort(function(time_stamp, device) {
const firsttime_stamp = time_stamp.split(" ")[0];
const secondtime_stamp = device.split(" ")[0];
if(firsttime_stamp < secondtime_stamp) return -1;
if(firsttime_stamp > secondtime_stamp) return 1;
return 0;
});
//console.log(myArgument + " last_changed time:\n{" + array_sorted.join(',') + "}");
let myResult = ("{" + array_sorted.join(",") + "}");
let myresult = myResult.toLowerCase();
return myresult.toString();
// Thanks to Robert Klep for the initial code
```
#### - code result, JSON with my matching power meters and UTC timestamps
(For the device names, I had to replace numbers, dots, whitespaces etc. and make text lowercase)
#### - one sensor value selected from the JSON result, it returns it’s UTC timestamp
#### BLL convert UTC to local time
#### - result
