Format Date
This data converter reformats a date. The input text must be a date in the standard date format, e.g. "2001-02-25 14:32:49.0".
Note: If you want to convert a date to the standard date format, use the Extract Date data converter.
Properties
The Format Date data converter is configured using the following properties:
- Locale
-
This field specifies the locale that the date is to be formatted to.
- Format Pattern
-
Contains a pattern that specifies the format of the date. Either use one of the default patterns, or see below for details about specifying a pattern.
- Description
-
Type in a description to be shown in the list of data converters. If there is no type in a description, one will be generated.
Specifying a format pattern
The format pattern provides a very flexible way of specifying the date format. However, the rules for specifying the pattern can be somewhat difficult to understand, so it might be easier to simply find the default pattern that matches the required format best, and then experiment with changing that default pattern.
In a pattern, the following special characters can be used:
|
Special Character |
Description |
Type |
Example |
|---|---|---|---|
|
y,yy,yyy |
year |
Number |
96 |
|
yyyy |
year |
Number |
1996 |
|
YYYY1 |
week year |
Number |
2009 |
|
M |
month |
Number |
7 |
|
MM |
month |
Number |
7 |
|
MMM |
month |
Text |
Jul |
|
MMMM |
month |
Text |
July |
|
d,dd |
day in month |
Number |
10 |
|
(d)ddd |
day in month |
Number |
(0)010 |
|
E,EE,EEE |
day in week |
Text |
Tue |
|
EEEE |
day in week |
Text |
Tuesday |
|
D,DD,(D)DDD |
day in year |
Number |
(0)189 |
|
(F)F |
day of week in month |
Number |
(0)2 (2nd Wed in July) |
|
w,(w)ww |
week in year |
Number |
(0)27 |
|
(W)W |
week in month |
Number |
(0)2 |
|
(H)H |
hour in day (0-23) |
Number |
(0)4 or (0)12 |
|
(k)k |
hour in day (1-24) |
Number |
(0)4 or (0)12 |
|
(K)K |
hour in am/pm (0-11) |
Number |
(0)0 |
|
(h)h |
hour in am/pm (1-12) |
Number |
(0)5 or (0)12 |
|
(m)m |
minute in hour |
Number |
(0)30 |
|
(s)s |
second in minute |
Number |
(0)55 |
|
S,SS,(S)SSS |
millisecond |
Number |
(0)978 |
|
a |
am/pm marker |
Text |
PM |
|
z,zz,zzz |
time zone |
Text |
PST |
|
(z)zzzz |
time zone |
Text |
Pacific Standard Time |
|
G |
era designator |
Text |
AD |
|
' |
start/end of text not in input |
Delimiter |
'o''clock' -> o'clock |
|
'' |
single quote |
Literal |
"EEEE" -> "Friday" |
Any characters in the pattern that are not letters in the range A-Z or a-z will be treated as text. For instance, characters like ':', '.', ' ', '#' and '@' will appear in the resulting date even though they are not enclosed in single quotes.
If the pattern is empty, the default date format for the selected locale is used.