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May 04, 2023 04:18 AM
I want to set a Date field to the current date time in an automation. I tried using a formula field (with NOW()) from a previous step in the automation to set this Date field but the automation fails with the error;
Field "Date" cannot accept the provided value: Could not convert string to date.
No amount of formatting of the formula field is helping.
Solved! Go to Solution.
May 04, 2023 03:13 PM
Hi,
Using NOW() to set current time, you should be aware that it updates every 5-10 minutes. So, the minute value won't be precise to a single minute. Also, it can cause delay of triggering automation.
I would set one-liner script step and use output for field value in next Update step. Precision+No delay+No extra column.
output.set('now',new Date().toISOString())
here, 'now' is just a variable name, you can change it
May 04, 2023 07:30 AM
Hmm, weird. Could you provide screenshots of your table and automation setup, or access to an example base where you're encountering this issue?
I was able to use an automation to paste the value from a formula field with "NOW()" into a Date field without that error and so I think my setup's different from yours:
May 04, 2023 03:13 PM
Hi,
Using NOW() to set current time, you should be aware that it updates every 5-10 minutes. So, the minute value won't be precise to a single minute. Also, it can cause delay of triggering automation.
I would set one-liner script step and use output for field value in next Update step. Precision+No delay+No extra column.
output.set('now',new Date().toISOString())
here, 'now' is just a variable name, you can change it
May 08, 2023 03:39 AM
This worked, thanks!
Jun 06, 2023 06:40 AM
Thanks for the solution
Aug 21, 2023 04:53 AM
Thanks for this solution - simple, efficient and genuis! 🙂
Jun 25, 2024 05:16 PM - edited Jun 26, 2024 06:00 PM
This script is great, very helpful for some of my automated emails! But can you help me refine the formatting a bit for my use?
Here's my current code:
output.set('now',new Date().toLocaleString("en-US", {timeZone: "America/Los_Angeles"}))
This outputs: 6/25/2024, 5:15:25 PM
I wanted the date/time to be formatted differently, so I'm using toLocaleString instead of toISOString. And I was able to properly set the timezone as I desire... however I can't figure out how to remove the seconds. Everything I've tried so far generates an error.
I'm a bit of a Java newbie, so any help is appreciated!
EDIT: I figured it out, here's my current code which has a nice clean output.
output.set('now', new Date().toLocaleString("en-US", {
timeZone: "America/Los_Angeles",
month: 'numeric',
day: 'numeric',
year: 'numeric',
hour: 'numeric',
minute: 'numeric',
hour12: true
}).replace(',', '').replace(' AM', 'AM').replace(' PM', 'PM'));