Time and Date Functions
Studio provides a set of functions for working with time and dates in expressions.
They are documented at the end of this page.
Function | Description |
---|---|
parseTime | Parses a string into a timestamp |
formatTime | Formats a timestamp into a string |
getTimezone | Get the user's local time zone |
geoToTimezone | Look up the time zone for a location |
About Timestamps
Studio internally represents time as timestamps.
Timestamps are integer values representing the number of milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970 (UNIX Epoch).
Timestamps are defined in UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time), meaning that timestamps are independent of time zones, DST (Daylight Savings Time) etc.
Format Codes
Like most time parsing and formatting libraries, Studio uses format codes. Format codes help the user specify:
- how strings representing dates should be parsed into timestamps (using
parseTime()
) - how timestamps should be converted to strings (using
formatTime()
)
Studio time functions support two common format code conventions:
- 1-4 letter codes (JavaScript-style codes, familiar to users of libraries such as
momentjs
anddayjs
). %
+ letter codes (Python-style codes, familiar to users of Pandasto_datetime()
and Pythonstrptime()
andstrftime()
functions).
Date and Time Format Codes Supported in Studio Expressions
Code | Alt | Example | Description |
---|---|---|---|
YY | %y | 18 | Two-digit year, without century, zero-padded |
YYYY | %Y | 2018 | Four-digit year, with century |
M | %-m | 1-12 | Month as number, beginning at 1 |
MM | %m | 01-12 | Month as 2-digit zero-padded number |
MMM | %b | Jan-Dec | Month as locale’s abbreviated name. |
MMMM | %B | January-December | Month as locale’s full name. |
D | %-d | 1-31 | Day of the month as number |
DD | %d | 01-31 | Day of the month as 2-digit zero-padded number |
d | %w | 0-6 | The day of the week, with Sunday as 0 |
dd | Su-Sa | Weekday as locale’s minimal name. | |
ddd | %a | Sun-Sat | Weekday as locale’s abbreviated name. |
dddd | %A | Sunday-Saturday | Weekday as locale’s full name. |
H | %-H | 0-23 | Hour (24 hour clock) |
HH | %H | 00-23 | Hour (24 hour clock), 2-digits zero-padded |
h | %-I | 1-12 | The hour, 12-hour clock |
hh | %I | 01-12 | The hour, 12-hour clock, 2-digits |
m | %-M | 0-59 | The minute |
mm | %M | 00-59 | The minute, 2-digits |
s | %-S | 0-59 | The second |
ss | %S | 00-59 | The second, 2-digits |
SSS | 000-999 | The millisecond, 3-digits | |
Z | +05:00 | The offset from UTC, ±HH:mm | |
ZZ | %z | +0500 | The offset from UTC, ±HHmm |
A | %p | AM PM | Locale’s equivalent of post or ante meridiem, upper-case |
a | am pm | Locale’s equivalent of post or ante meridiem, lower-case | |
Do | 1st-31st | Day of Month with ordinal | |
%% | % | A literal % character |
Examples:
Parsing a date string into a timestamp using a format string
parseTime("25/01/2019", "DD/MM/YYYY"); // => 1548403200000
parseTime("25/01/2019", "%d/%m/%Y"); // => 1548403200000
Formatting a timestamp into a date string using a format string
formatTime(1548403200000, "MM/DD/YY"); // => '01/25/19'
formatTime(1548403200000, "%m/%d/%y"); // => '01/25/19'
Time Zones
Time zones affect the conversion of UTC timestamps into local time. The formatTime()
and parseTime()
functions accept a timezone that lets you
If not specified, the default timezone is used. This timezone is returned by the
getTimezone()
function.
It is also possible to calculate the local timezone for a specific location, using the geoToTimezone()
function.
Time zones are represented as strings. There are a number of ways to specify timezones. Below is a list of US time zones.
U.S. Time Zone | UTC offset | DST offset |
---|---|---|
Pacific/Honolulu | −10:00 | −10:00 |
America/Adak | −10:00 | −09:00 |
America/Anchorage | −09:00 | −08:00 |
America/Los_Angeles | −08:00 | −07:00 |
America/Denver | −07:00 | −06:00 |
America/Phoenix | −07:00 | −07:00 |
America/Chicago | −06:00 | −05:00 |
America/New_York | −05:00 | −04:00 |
America/Detroit | −05:00 | −04:00 |
Locales
Strings representing dates and times can contain language specific words (e.g. names of months and weekdays). Accordingly some formatting codes are locale dependent.
Studio currently only supports a default English locale. Please reach out to [email protected] if you need support for additional locales.
parseTime
Parse a string into a timestamp.
parseTime(time: string, format?: string, timezone?: string): timestamp
-
time
A string representing a date and/or time. -
format
An optional string describing the format of the date/time strings to be parsed. If no format is provided, the date is assumed to be in ISO 8601 format. -
timezone
An optional string representing the time zone that the times should be interpreted in, if not provided, the current timezone (defined by the user's browser and operating system) will be used. -
Returns: an integer timestamp.
Example: No format string provided. ISO 8601 formatted dates can be parsed.
parseTime("2018-04-04");
parseTime("2018-04-04T16:00:00.000Z");
formatTime
Format a timestamp into a string.
formatTime(ts: timestamp, format?: string, timezone?: string): string
timestamp
An integer timestampformat
An optional string describing the format of the resulting date/time strings. If no format is provided, the date will be formatted in ISO 8601 format.timezone
An optional string representing the time zone that the timestamp should be converted to, if not provided, the current timezone (defined by the user's browser and operating system) will be used.
getTimezone
Returns the users current timezone.
getTimezone(): string
- Returns a string representing the local time zone that can be used in other functions accepting timezones, including
parseTime()
andformatTime()
. The format would normally be a long string such asAmerica/Los_Angeles
.
Note that different users may get different values depending on
their location in the world and settings in their browser and operating system.
geoToTimezone
Looks up the timezone for a specific location.
geoToTimezone(lng: number, lat: number): string
-
lng
longitude in degrees -
lat
longitude in degrees -
Returns an IANA timezone database string (such as
America/Los_Angeles
) representing the local time zone that can be used in other functions accepting timezones, includingparseTime()
andformatTime()
.
Remarks:
- The timezones returned by this function are approximate: since the official timezone database is so large, lossy compression is necessary for a small footprint and fast lookups. Expect errors near timezone borders far away from populated areas. However, for most use-cases, accuracy should be adequate.
Updated 12 months ago