Format date transform function

Introduction

The format transform function is used to change a date value to a different format. For example:

ISO 8601 format

"created_at":"2023-10-26T07:51:07-04:00"

...might be changed to:

Unix Epoch format

1698321067

A range of predefined date formats is available for selection, or you can set your own custom format.

Adding a format date transform

Step 1 In your process flow, access settings for your map shape:

Step 2 Select the add transform button for the required mapping rule - for example:

Step 3 Click the add transform button:

Step 4 Click in the name field to access a list of all available transform functions, then select format from the date category:

Step 5 Click in the format field to select a predefined date format that incoming dates should be converted to:

The format that I need isn't listed

If the format that you need isn't listed, choose the custom option from the format list, then specify the required format in the custom format field - for example: j.m.Y

For a list of commonly used date specifiers that can be used in custom formats, see below.

Step 6 Click the add field button:

Step 7 Click in source fields and select the source field to be used for this transform:

Step 8 Accept your changes (twice).

Step 9 Save the transform. You'll notice that the transform icon is updated to indicate that a transform function is present for the mapping row - for example:

Common format specifiers for custom dates

Internally, the format transform function uses Laravel's date format methods, which in turn call PHP date format methods. Commonly used format specifiers are listed below - full details are available in this Laravel guide.

Day-related

The following characters are commonly used to specify days in custom format dates.

Specifier	Summary
d	Day of the month with leading zeros (01 to 31).
j	Day of the month without leading zeros (1 to 31).
D	A textual representation of a day in three letters (Mon to Sun)
l	A full textual representation of the day of the week (Monday to Sunday)

Month-related

The following characters are commonly used to specify months in custom format dates.

Specifier	Summary
m	Numeric representation of a month with leading zeros (01 to 12).
n	Numeric representation of a month without leading zeros (1 to 12).
M	A textual representation of a month in three letters (Jan to Dec)
F	A full textual representation of a month (January to December).

Year-related

The following characters are commonly used to specify years in custom format dates.

Specifier	Summary
Y	Four-digit representation of the year (e.g. 2023).
y	Two-digit representation of the year (e.g. 23).

Time-related

The following characters are commonly used to specify times in custom format dates.

Specifier	Summary
H	Hour in 24-hour format with leading zeros (00 to 23).
i	Minutes with leading zeros (00 to 59).
s	Seconds with leading zeros (00 to 59).
a	Lowercase Ante meridiem (am) or Post meridiem (pm).
A	Uppercase Ante meridiem (AM) or Post meridiem (PM).

Usage notes

Unix Epoch format

Unix Epoch dates must be received as a number, not a string - i.e.:

1701734400 rather than "1701734400"

If your Unix dates are provided as strings, you should convert these to numbers. To achieve this, add a cast to number transform for the date field BEFORE the date format transform function.