system.date.format
This function is used in Python Scripting.
Description
Returns the given date as a string and formatted according to a pattern. The pattern is a format that is full of various placeholders that display different parts of the date. These are case-sensitive. These placeholders can be repeated for a different effect. For example, M will give you 1-12, MM will give you 01-12, MMM will give you Jan-Dec, MMMM will give you January-December. The placeholders are:
| Symbol | Description | Presentation | Examples | Other Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | Era designator | Text | G=AD | |
| y | Year | Year | yyyy=1996; yy=96 | Lowercase y is the most commonly used year symbol |
| Y | Week year | Year | YYYY=2009; YY=09 | Capital Y gives the year based on weeks (ie. changes to the new year up to a week early) |
| M | Month in year | Month | MMMM=July; MMM=Jul; MM=07 | |
| w | Week in year | Number | 27 | If Dec31 is mid-week, it will be in week 1 of the next year |
| W | Week in month | Number | 2 | |
| D | Day in year | Number | 189 | |
| d | Day in month | Number | 10 | |
| F | Day of week in month | Number | 2 | 2nd Sunday of the month |
| E | Day name in week | Tex | EEEE=Tuesday; E=Tue | |
| u | Day number of week | Number | 1 | (1 = Monday, ..., 7 = Sunday) |
| a | Am/Pm marker | Text | PM | |
| H | Hour in day (0-23) | Number | 0 | |
| h | Hour in am/pm (1-12) | Number | 12 | |
| k | Hour in day (1-24) | Number | 24 | |
| K | Hour in am/pm (0-11) | Number | 0 | |
| m | Minute in hour | Number | 30 | |
| s | Second in minute | Number | 55 | |
| S | Millisecond | Number | 978 | |
| z | Time zone | General time zone | zzzz=Pacific Standard Time; z=PST | |
| Z | Time zone | RFC 822 time zone | Z=-0800 | |
| X | Time zone | ISO 8601 time zone | X=-08; XX=-0800; XXX=-08:00 |
Expert Tip
This function uses the Java class java.text.SimpleDateFormat internally, and will accept any valid format string for that class.
Client Permission Restrictions
This scripting function has no Client Permission restrictions.
Syntax
system.date.format(date, format)
Parameters
| Type | Parameter | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Date | date | The date to format. |
| String | format | A format string such as "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss". The format argument is optional. The default is "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss". Refer to Data Type Formatting Reference for a table of acceptable symbols. |
Returns
String - A string representing the formatted datetime.
Scope
All
Code Examples
Example #1
# This example would format the current date to look like "01/01/01"
today = system.date.now()
print system.date.format(today, "yy/MM/dd")
#This printed 16/04/01
Example #2
# This example would format the current date to look like "2001-01-31 16:59:59"
# This is a standard format that all databases recognize.
today = system.date.now()
print system.date.format(today, "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")