Choose where you’d like to start

toDateTimeString

Overview
Return Type
Syntax
Examples

Note:The toDateTimeString built-in function is applicable to all Zoho services.

Overview

The toDateTimeString function is a built-in function used for managing date and time data efficiently. Primarily, this function is used to handle Unix time conversion, simplifying the process of working with timestamps in Unix-based systems.

Date Format format: In addition to converting Unix time, this function can also adjust input date-time values to various accepted date-time formats, enhancing compatibility with diverse date representations.
Timezone: Additionally, the toDateTimeString function enables seamless conversion of dates and times between different time zones. This capability guarantees consistent handling of time-related data, a critical necessity for globally used or distributed applications.

Note:

Daylight saving is taken into account by default wherever required. This means the returned date will be automatically adjusted for DST.
The output (for example, month, timezone, or day) is in English for all users, regardless of their locale.

Return Type

TEXT

Syntax

<result> = <input_data>.toDateTimeString(<dateTimeFormat>, <timeZone>);

(or)

<result> = toDateTimeString(<input_data>, <dateTimeFormat>, <timeZone>);

where,

Parameter	Data type	Description
<result>	TEXT	Result that will contain the returned date value. Note:The date-time format and timezone will be converted to the preference specified using <dateTimeFormat> and <timeZone> parameters.
<input_data>	NUMBER	The data is returned in the specified date-time format or timezone as indicated in the input. Note: The input format for date-time and timezone is determined by the service settings. The numeric value 0 represents the date-time value of 01-Jan-1970 in the UTC timezone. Each increase of 1000 adds one second to the date value, while each decrease of 1000 subtracts one second. For instance, the number 1000 corresponds to a date value of 01-01-1970 00:00:01.
<dateTimeFormat>	TEXT	The format in which the date time value will be returned. Note: Within this param, you can only specify date-time literals which represent the respective components of a date or time value. If this param is not specified, the date-time value will be returned in a format specified in application settings.
<timeZone>	TEXT	Time zone in which the date-time value will be returned. Note: Value must be specified exactly as given in the TZ database name.

Learn more about the supported date-time and time formats.

Applicable Date-Time Literals

Letter	Date and Time Component
G	Era designator
y	Calendar year Examples: y - 2019 yy -19 yyy - 2019 dateValue = '29-Dec-2019'; info dateValue.toDateString("yyyy"); // returns 2019
Y	Week year Examples: Y - 2019 YY -19 YYY - 2019 dateValue = '29-Dec-2019'; info dateValue.toDateString("YYYY"); // returns 2020
M	Month in year Examples: M - 1 MM - 01 MMM - Jan MMMM - January
w	Week in year
W	Week in month
D	Day in year
d	Day in month
F	Day of week in month
E	Day name in week Examples: E - Tue EEEE - Tuesday
u	Day number of week
a	am/pm marker
H	Hour in day (0-23)
k	Hour in day (1-24)
K	Hour in am/pm (0-11)
h	Hour in am/pm (1-12)
m	Minute in hour
s	Second in minute
S	Millisecond
z	General time zone
Z	RFC time zone
X	ISO 8601 time zone

Examples

Here is an example of how the toDateTimeString can be used:

ctime = 1693905560373; // This is a date-time value represented in Unix time format.
 info toDateTimeString(ctime,"MMM dd, yy 'at' hh:mm:ss z, E","IST");
// Returns Sep 05, 23 at 02:49:20 IST, Tue

Deluge

The fastest programming language for developers