Format date/time

Date and time Pure
Format date/time
Value 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
Result
Pattern yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX

Description

Pure function formatting a date/time as a string. The pattern follows Java's DateTimeFormatter syntax; the default is ISO-8601.

When to use

Use Format date/time to convert a datetime value into a human-readable or machine-parseable string — for example, building a report filename, populating an email body, or producing a timestamp for an API request. The pattern follows Java’s DateTimeFormatter syntax, so common patterns like yyyy-MM-dd or dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm work directly. Pair with Now to stamp the current time.

Pins

Input pins

Pin Type Default Notes
Value datetime 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z The date/time value to format. Wire from `now` or `parse-datetime`.
Pattern string yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX A Java DateTimeFormatter pattern. Literal text must be wrapped in single quotes (e.g. 'T' in the default).

Output pins

Pin Type Notes
Result string The formatted date/time string.

Example

Produce a date string for a nightly report email subject. Wire the Result output of Now into the Value input of Format date/time and set Pattern to yyyy-MM-dd. The Result output is a string like 2025-05-15 that can be wired into the Text 2 input of Concatenate strings (Text 1 set to "Nightly report ") and then into the Subject input of Send email.

See also