Text to Date
Create a date and time from the contents of text according to a specified format.
For most standard formats, this function is not necessary. You can pass any standard date and time text into a date input and it will be converted automatically. This function is for non-standard or ambiguous formats, such that the value 2/1 might be read as 1-Feb or 2-Jan.
Input
| Field | Definition | Type | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| start | Text to be converted to a date and time value. | String | TRUE |
| format | Date format code of the input value for the start field. | String | FALSE |
Output
| Field | Definition | Type |
|---|---|---|
| output | Date object that corresponds to the start input value based on the specified format code. | Date & Time |
Format Codes
Build the format for the date and/or time format you want using any combination of these codes along with fixed characters such as slashes and commas.
| format codes | output |
|---|---|
|
D |
For day number (in the month) or DD to always show it using two digits. |
| M | For month number or MM for always two digits. |
| MMM | For three letter month name abbreviation or MMMM for full month name. |
| Y | For four digit year number or YY for two-digit year number. |
| h | For hour number (1-12) or hh to always show it using two digits. |
| H | For hour number (0-23) or HH to always show it using two digits. |
| mm | For minutes. |
| ss | For seconds (and add S's to include milliseconds; for example, ss.SSS). |
| a | For am or pm or A for AM or PM. |
| Z | For timezone in offset format (for example, -07:00) or z for code (for example, PDT). |
| d | For day of the week (1=Monday), ddd for day abbreviation (for example, Mon) or dddd for full day name (for example, Monday). |
| x | For a timestamp in "unix in milliseconds" format, defined as the count of milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970 at midnight GMT. |
| X | For a timestamp in "unix in seconds" format, also known as "epoch" or "unix timestamp", which is defined as the count of seconds since Jan 1, 1970 at midnight GMT. |
Examples
| start | format | output |
|---|---|---|
1/2/2016
|
D/M/Y
|
2016-02-01T00:00:00.000Z
|
1/2/16
|
M/D/YY
|
2016-01-02T00:00:00.000Z
|
1493053116
|
X
|
2017-04-24T16:58:36.000Z
|
If you want to convert from a date from the Twilio connector, which uses RFC2822 format, set the format input field to ddd, DD MMM YYYY HH:mm:ss Z. For example, a Twilio date of Wed, 30 Nov 2016 03:17:37 +0000 will be converted to the date format of 2016-11-30T03:17:37.000Z.