# Initial cylc point specification
**URL:** https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364
**Category:** Cylc Support
**Created:** [August 2, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364 "2021-08-02T23:23:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@schaferk](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/schaferk)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364/1 "2021-08-02T23:23:47Z")
in a suite, I found it useful to specify the initial cycle point thusly,
```ini
initial cycle point = previous(T-00; T-15; T-30; T-45)
```
allowing a certain discretization with respect to time, of the suite being run.
is there an analogous statement for the nearest day, meaning, regardless to the wall time that the suite is run, that the initial cycle point would be say YYYYmmddT00?
the more general question:
is the “previous( …)” construct generalized for other units? (example above for hr)
I was not able to locate where I found the ‘previous(…)’ again, and made a few failed attempts (validation) at what might work.
---
### Author:  [@hilary.j.oliver](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/hilary.j.oliver)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364/2 "2021-08-03T03:47:30Z")
You can use:
```ini
previous(T00)
```
or
```ini
next(T00)
```
to get the nearest day in either direction from “now”.
---
### Author:  [@hilary.j.oliver](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/hilary.j.oliver)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2021, 3:52am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364/3 "2021-08-03T03:52:58Z")
This notation does generalize, by the way.
E.g. to start from the most recent 2 January:
```ini
previous(--0102T00)
```
---
### Author:  [@hilary.j.oliver](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/hilary.j.oliver)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2021, 3:54am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364/4 "2021-08-03T03:54:08Z")
Documentation link: [Running Workflows — Cylc nightly.2021-07-23 documentation](https://cylc.github.io/cylc-doc/nightly/html/user-guide/running-workflows.html#setting-the-icp-relative-to-now)
---
### Author:  [@schaferk](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/schaferk)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2021, 12:14pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364/5 "2021-08-05T12:14:48Z")
```auto
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```
looks like the info has been moved to
[relative to now](https://cylc.github.io/cylc-doc/nightly/html/user-guide/writing-workflows/scheduling.html#setting-the-initial-cycle-point-relative-to-the-current-time)
---
### Author:  [@oliver.sanders](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/oliver.sanders)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364/6 "2021-08-05T15:35:28Z")
That was a link to the nightly documentation build for Cylc 8.
Here’s the Cylc 7 link:
[https://cylc.github.io/cylc-doc/7.8.8/html/appendices/suiterc-config-ref.html#scheduling-initial-cycle-point-initial-cycle-point-relative-to-current-time](https://cylc.github.io/cylc-doc/7.8.8/html/appendices/suiterc-config-ref.html#scheduling-initial-cycle-point-initial-cycle-point-relative-to-current-time)
---
### Author:  [@hilary.j.oliver](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/hilary.j.oliver)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/initial-cylc-point-specification/364/7 "2021-08-05T21:31:22Z")
(Sorry about that 😬 )