Convert Text to Date

Ask the community Dates and timezones
#1

I have the data in one column:

2018-11-08 10:21:59 PST
2019-02-26 07:26:44 PST
2019-02-04 08:08:18 PST
2019-03-11 07:47:03 PDT

This is now a text field, how can I convert this to a date field ? I will will use a new column but what is the Formula to use?

What is the formula to use here

#2

You’ll use the DATETIME_PARSE function for this. However, the PST vs PDT difference can’t be tracked, as the date format specifiers used by this function don’t provide that kind of control.

Assuming your existing text-based dates are in a {Date} column, I originally wrote this formula:

DATETIME_PARSE(Date, "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss")

However, sometimes Airtable is smart enough to figure things out on its own:

DATETIME_PARSE(Date)

In either case, everything works fine:

26%20PM

3 Likes
#3

Nops I was unable to do it with this column alone

I did have to add 2 new columns:

open-date (Fixer): : DATETIME_FORMAT({open-date},“MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm:ss”)
Date Added:: DATETIME_PARSE({open-date (Fixer)})

Airtable catch that I want date after I did 2 columns

WHy?

#4

Not sure. DATETIME_PARSE by itself worked fine for me on the samples I copied from your original post. It could be that there’s something in the actual data you’re using that’s muddying the waters, and it can’t parse correctly.

What’s the order of your two fields? Does the format come first, and then the parse (as you have them written), or the other way around? Technically formatting is only possible on an actual datetime object, so formatting text before it’s been turned into a datetime object should (in theory) not work. It should be parse first, then format.

One thing that can sometimes throw Airtable off its game is styling of certain characters. It’s known that styled quotes won’t work in formulas, so maybe some of the characters in your text version of the dates can’t be parsed accurately. Did you copy your original example directly from the data itself, or retype it?

#5

@Justin_Barrett I have another similar issue. I auto-import data from Twitter into Airtable through IFTTT. The date has to come in as plain text (i.e., Long Text). Its comes in as this: August 04, 2019 at 04:04AM

I want to convert that to: 2019-Aug-04 OR 2019-08-04

What formula can I use in Airtable? DATETIME_PARSE(Date,“YYYY-MM-DD”) didn’t work in this case. The formula itself ‘took’ but the “August 04, 2019 at 04:04AM” converted to “Error”

#6

Welcome to the community, Callie! :smiley: With the DATETIME_PARSE() function, the pattern that you give it is the one matching the string you’re parsing, which is “August 04, 2019 at 04:04AM” in your case:

DATETIME_PARSE(Date, "MMMM DD, YYYY at hh:mmA")

What you get back is a datetime object, which then needs to be formatted using DATETIME_FORMAT(). The whole thing will look like this, using your first desired format (2019-Aug-04) as an example:

DATETIME_FORMAT(DATETIME_PARSE(Date, "MMMM DD, YYYY at hh:mmA"), "YYYY-MMM-DD")

04%20AM

1 Like
#7

Continuing the discussion from Convert Text to Date:

I’m using Zapier to populate Checkin and Checkout dates for our Airbnb, in Airtable. I’m using Zapier’s email parser tool to grab data from incoming Airbnb “New Reservation” emails, and dump all of these new reservations into my Airtable.

The date in the email is formatted as text: ‌‌J‌a‌n‌ ‌0‌9‌,‌ ‌2‌0‌2‌0‌ but I would like it to be a date. Or if I need to convert the text field to a date, that’s fine. My ideal date format would be YYYY-MM-DD

Can I format my “Check-in” field to be a formula that accepts the format coming in from Zapier as text?

If not, then I’m okay with creating another field (as pictured below) called “Checkin”. I tried this, using the formula

DATETIME_FORMAT(DATETIME_PARSE({Check-in}, “MMMM DD, YYYY”), “YYYY-MM-DD”)

As you can see from the image below, the formula seemed to work on the third row down, but i’m getting an error for all the other rows. @Justin_Barrett do you have any idea what I should do here?

image

Convert raw date name into an Airtable DATE field
#8

You’ve got one too many Ms in your parse string for the month. MMMM will parse fully-spelled months (January, February, March, etc.), but you need MMM to parse Jan, Feb, Mar, etc. Your formula should be this:

DATETIME_FORMAT(DATETIME_PARSE({Check-in}, "MMM DD, YYYY"), "YYYY-MM-DD")
#9

Thanks for the quick response, Justin! I tried the formula you gave me and pushed another sample record through the Zap. The TEXT field was able to bring in the date, as illustrated below. But as you can see… the formula field pushed an error when it tried to receive the data: Jan 09, 2020. Any ideas what to try next?

image

#10

Not sure why it’s failing for you. It works on my end:

Screen Shot 2020-01-14 at 6.31.49 PM

Is your formula exactly as I listed above, or did you tweak anything about it before putting it into your formula field?

If that’s not the case, my only other thought is that there are some special characters that don’t display in the {Check-in} field that are causing the formula to fail. You might try this alternative version:

DATETIME_FORMAT(DATETIME_PARSE(TRIM({Check-in}), "MMM DD, YYYY"), "YYYY-MM-DD")

Simply having extra spaces around the text date won’t mess it up (I tried), but perhaps there’s something else there, and perhaps TRIM() can get rid of it if so.

#11

Yeah the interesting thing to note was in my post a few threads ago… if you look at the third row down… the formula worked!

I like what you’re saying about some hidden data that might be coming through. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that your TRIM suggestion will work.

Thanks again for taking the time to help :raised_hands:

#12

Okay @Justin_Barrett! I’ve done another test and here’s another tidbit that might help with my situation…

Unfortunately the “TRIM” function did not allow the “Checkin” formula to accept the data being input from my Zapier email parser.

Take a quick look at the image below:

  • On the left you’ll see the original email from Airbnb - note the Date, that I want in Airtable
  • On the right you’ll see the Zapier Email Parser app. When it gets the receives an email it’s pulling in those red dots, which I’m guessing means there some kind of character or formatting in the CSS or styling of the email. But it’s weird b/c the Zapier Email Parser seems to remove all formatting… but for some reason those red dots show up.

image
image1548×684 270 KB

So in a different TEXT field called “Check-in”, I’m using my zap to send over that same bit in the green box (illustrated in the image above), and the information is coming in just fine, as illustrated here:

image

Can the Airtable TEXT field retain formatting being input from a Zap? Like if the zap was pushing those red dots through or something? Though it doesn’t seem so. The date is coming through as MMM DD, YYYY

I’m so confused right now. The most confusing thing is that one of the dates does convert properly…
image

#13

That sounds very likely. I’m not sure what those red dots represent, but they’re obviously extra characters that Airtable doesn’t render, even though it most definitely recognizes them at a formula level. But why it successfully parses some dates and not others is a mystery.

One thing to try is to wrap SUBSTITUTE() around the {Check-in} field reference in your formula, and substitute the mystery bits out. Copy one of those mystery characters from Zapier, paste it into the SUBSTITUTE() formula. Here’s roughly what it would look like with that mystery character represented by :x::

DATETIME_FORMAT(DATETIME_PARSE(SUBSTITUTE({Check-in}, "❌", ""), "MMM DD, YYYY"), "YYYY-MM-DD")

Replace :x: with your mystery character and see how things go. If that doesn’t work, try copying one of those mystery characters into a plain text editor that (I hope) will display it for what it really is, and share a screenshot of that here so we can dig more deeply.