Date, date/time and time functions

  • date()
  • dateLong()
  • dateMedium()
  • dateShort()
  • dateTime()
  • dateTimeLong()
  • dateTimeMedium()
  • dateTimeShort()
  • time()
  • timeLong()
  • timeMedium()
  • timeShort()

Note: The locale also influences the output of the different Date functions; see Locale.

date(value, pattern)

Formats a date object using a custom pattern.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

pattern

String. The custom pattern may consist of pattern letters, separating symbols and quoted text, for example: "MMMM dd, yyyy"; see Date and time patterns. Note that the repetition of pattern letters determines the exact presentation.

dateLong(value)

Formats a date as long string representation, for example April 1, 2016.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

dateMedium(value)

Formats a date as medium string representation, for example 1-Apr-2016.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

dateShort(value)

Formats a date as short string representation, for example 4/1/16.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

dateTime(value, pattern)

Formats a date and time object using a custom pattern.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

pattern

String. The custom pattern may consist of pattern letters, separating symbols and quoted text, for example: "yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' HH:mm:ss z"; see Date and time patterns. Note that the repetition of pattern letters determines the exact presentation.

dateTimeLong(value)

Formats a date and time as long string representation, for example April 1, 2016 12:00:00 EDT AM.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

dateTimeMedium(value)

Formats a date and time as medium string representation, for example 1-Apr-2016 12:00:00 AM.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

dateTimeShort(value)

Formats a date and time as short string representation, for example 1/4/16 12:00 AM.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

time(value, pattern)

Formats a time using a custom pattern.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

pattern

String. The custom pattern may consist of pattern letters, separating symbols and quoted text, for example: "'at' HH:mm:ss z"; see Date and time patterns. Note that the repetition of pattern letters determines the exact presentation.

timeLong(value)

Formats a time as long string representation, for example 12:00:00 EDT AM.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

timeMedium(value)

Formats a time as medium string representation, for example 12:00:00 AM.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

timeShort(value)

Formats a time as short string representation, for example 12:00 AM.

value

A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.

Examples

Creating a Date object from a string

When you open a data file or database in the Designer, all fields are text fields (fields of the type string). The formatter cannot be used to format a string with a particular date format. The solution is to store the string in a variable as a Date object, and use the formatter with that variable.

The following sample script demonstrates this solution. It splits a string into parts and then creates a new Date object with the parts in the correct order. To construct a Date, the parts of the date must be put in the following order: year, month, day, and optionally hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds (see MDN Web Docs - Date object). When the time is omitted, it defaults to 12:00:00 AM.

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/* Convert the string 21-12-1997 into a valid JavaScript date */
        var strDate = record.fields["date"];
        var dateParts = strDate.split("-");
        var date = new Date(dateParts[2], (dateParts[1] - 1), dateParts[0]);

Note: JavaScript counts months from 0 to 11. January is 0. December is 11.

Another way to put a string in a Date is to use the Date.parse function; see MDN Web Docs - Date parse.

The date variable can be used as the value in the date, dateTime or time functions of the formatter.

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var myDate = formatter.date(date, "MM/dd/yyyy");

The custom pattern that the script provides, outputs the month and day in two digits each and the year in four digits: 05/21/2016. For more examples of formatting patterns, see Date and time patterns.