Format Date Filter dialog box

This filter converts a string containing date in the system date format into a string containing date in a custom date format.

The input string should have a system date format of the machine on which the Workflow Server is installed. The custom format may contain ordinary characters and format specifications.

Option Description
Field name Enter the field name of the FRTN generated by the filter.
Input Enter the input string containing date in the system date format to be converted into a custom format. Commonly, RRT is used in this text box.
Format Enter a custom date format for the output string. This custom format may contain ordinary characters and format specifications. The format specification is a special character that represents a part of date string(day, month, year, or day of week) or time string(hours, seconds, minutes and so on), preceded by "%" sign. The following characters for format specifications may be used:
  • a - abbreviated weekday name,
  • A - full weekday name,
  • b - month abbreviation,
  • B - full month name,
  • c - date and time in the form defined by the locale,
  • d - day of month as a decimal number (01-31),
  • H - hour in 24-hour format (00-23),
  • I - hour in 12-hour format (01-12),
  • j - day of year as a decimal number (001-366),
  • m - month as a decimal number (01-12),
  • M - minute as a decimal number (00-59),
  • p - current locale’s A.M./P.M. indicator for 12 hour clock,
  • S - seconds as a decimal number (00-59),
  • U - week of year as a decimal number with Sunday as a first day of week (00-53),
  • w - weekday as a decimal number (0-6; Sunday is 0),
  • W - week of year as a decimal number, with Monday as a first day of week (00-53),
  • x - date representation for the current locale,
  • X - time representation for the current locale,
  • y - year without century,
  • Y - year with century,
  • z - time zone name,
  • Z - time zone abbreviation.
Insert Click this button to select a part of the custom format to be inserted into the Format text box. When you click this button, it displays the context menu of standard date formats (for English and German localization) and the list of main date format specifications. The top section of the context menu contains the standard short date formats; for example, "MM/dd/yy", "dd.MM.yyyy", and so on. The middle section of the context menu contains the standard long date formats; for example, "dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy". The bottom section contains the main format specifications.

When an item is selected in the list, it is inserted into the cursor position in the Format text box in the form of format specifications. For example, if you select "yyyy-MM-dd", it will be inserted as "%Y-%m-%d".

The date format does not support the format specifications whose decimal representation does not have a leading zero for a single-digit day/month.
Fail job if input/output is invalid If this check box is selected, the component will reject the current job if either an input date is invalid or an output is empty. If this option is not selected and input string contains invalid date, the component returns the original value.

This filter generates the following Boolean RRT that can be used in the Validate filter for metadata validation: ~DFT::%field name#IsInvalidDate%~. It is replaced with TRUE if the input string is not a valid date. Otherwise, it is replaced with FALSE.

Result RRT:

~DFT::%field name%~ is replaced with the input string after the conversion.

The example of the filter usage:

Input: 5/18/2010

Format: %b %d, %Y

The generated RRT will be replaced with: May 18, 2010.