IF or SWITCH? If the date is 6/29/2023 then it would return "Th" for Thursday

[eveningmeadow]

Hi,

I have a few dates and want to generate the day of the week initial based on the date in a column.

If the date is 6/29/2023, then it would return Th.

I've tried If and Switch, but my formulas are definitely wrong I think because it is related to a date. Ideas?

[Databaser]

Hi @eveningmeadow 

You can use a formula for this: DATETIME_FORMAT(your date field, 'format specifier') . 

[eveningmeadow]

Ok, that is not working for me. 

DATETIME_FORMAT(SWITCH(

 {Start},

   06/30/2023, "F",

   06/29/2023, "Th',

   06/28/2023, 'W',

   06/27/2023, 'T',

   06/28/2023, 'M',

   07/01/2023, 'S'

))

[eveningmeadow]

I tried this too 

IF({Start} = DATETIME_FORMAT{06/30/2023}, "F")

[AirOps]

To build on @Databaser's suggestion try this: 

DATETIME_FORMAT([your date field], "dd")

This returns the following abbreviations: 

The issue you are encountering is because you need to pass the formula one of the supported specifiers listed on this page: https://support.airtable.com/docs/supported-format-specifiers-for-datetime-format 

If you need just the first letter of the abbreviation except on tuesdays/thursdays you could write: 

IF(OR(DATETIME_FORMAT(Date, "dd") = "Tu", DATETIME_FORMAT(Date, "dd") = "Th"), DATETIME_FORMAT(Date, "dd"), LEFT(DATETIME_FORMAT(Date, "dd"), 1))

I hope this helps!