Date functions

DateParse

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This function isn’t compatible with all data platform connections. To check if your connection supports it, see Supported data platforms and feature compatibility.

The DateParse function parses a text string representing a date in the specified format and returns the equivalent ISO datetime value (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).

If the input is a text or number value that reflects ISO (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS) or Unix time format, you can use the Date function, which doesn’t require you to specify the input format.

Syntax

DateParse(text, format)

Function arguments

text(required) The text string or column of text strings to parse.
format(required) The datetime format of the text string.

Compatible format specifiers

The DateParse function uses the datetime formatting functionality of the connected CDW or DBMS. The following format specifiers are supported by most connections and can be used to build the datetime format string.

BigQuery doesn’t support the %L and %f specifiers.

FormatDescriptionExample output
(for 2018-07-08 00:34:59)

%Y

Four-digit year

2018

%y

Two-digit year

18

%m

Two-digit month

07

%B

Full month name

July

%b

Abbreviated month name

Jul

%A

Full day of week

Sunday

%a

Abbreviated day of week

Sun

%d

Two-digit day of month (01-31)

08

%H

Two-digit hour based on 24-hour clock (00–23)

00

%I

Two-digit hour based on 12-hour clock (01–12)

12

%M

Two-digit minutes (00–59)

34

%S

Two-digit seconds (00–59)

59

%p

AM or PM

AM

%L

Three-digit milliseconds (000–999)

000

%f

Six-digit microseconds (000000–999999)

000000

%Z

Time zone offset

-07:00

%%

Percent symbol

%

Because two-digit years converted with the %y conversion are ambiguous, dates with a %y of 00–69 convert to 2000–2069 and dates with a %y of 70–99 convert to 1970–1999.

Examples

Example 1

DateParse("03-Sep-2020:03:05:13", "%d-%b-%Y:%H:%M:%S")

Parses the text string "03-Sep-2020:03:05:13" and returns the equivalent ISO datetime value 2020-09-03 03:05:13.

Example 2

DateParse([Text Date], "%d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S")

Parses text strings in the Text Date column using the specified format (%d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S) and returns equivalent values in ISO datetime format.

Example 3

DateParse([Text Date], "%d/%b/%Y")

Parses text strings in the Text Date column using the specified format (%d/%b/%Y) and returns the equivalent values in ISO date time format.