Date, date/time and time functions
- date()
- dateLong()
- dateMedium()
- dateShort()
- dateTime()
- dateTimeLong()
- dateTimeMedium()
- dateTimeShort()
- time()
- timeLong()
- timeMedium()
- timeShort()
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 01/04/16.
value
A Date object. A Date can contain a date and time.
dateShort(value)
Formats a date as short string representation, for example 1-Apr-2016.
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 01/04/16 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 http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_dates.asp and https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date.) When the time is omitted, it defaults to 12:00:00 AM. /* 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]);
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 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date/parse.
The date variable can be used as the value in the date, dateTime or time functions of the formatter. 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.
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