The formatdtl() function

Usage

FORMATDTL(date, dateFormat)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
date (required)	dtl	The date value to be converted to a string.
dateFormat (required)	dtf	The date format to parse the dtl argument with during the conversion.

Returns

A string that is the result of unparsing the dtl argument with the dateFormat argument.

Remarks

The formatdtl() function is limited to client-side queries, which means that it does not work with arguments that are the direct results of a server-side query. When you need to display a date that you query from a reference table on the server as a string, stringify the dtl in the control that will display it, and not in the query itself.

The sample below has two dropdown controls that query the same columns of the nufDtl reference table in the Cloud. One runs formatdtl() on the dtl returned by the query in the textMap property. The other one would throw an error at compile-time because it attempts to run formatdtl() as part of the query itself.

To be able to run the server-side query to a reference table in the example below, you'll need the declaration file and some input data for the reference table that the code sample queries.

formatNumberSample.fls.xml

...
<dropdown id="ddFoo"
  label="When was Charlie Chaplin born?"
  choices='{SELECT p.numint, p.dtl
            FROM nufDtl p}'
  keyMap='{numint}'
  textMap='{FORMATDTL(dtl, (dtf d "/" M "/" yy " " H ":" m ":" s))}'/>
<!--This would throw an error at compile time
because the query attempts to run a client-side function
on a server-side reference table query
<dropdown id="ddBar"
  label="When was Wounded Knee?"
  choices='{SELECT g.numint,
          (FORMATDTL(g.dtl, (dtf d"/"M"/"yy" "H":"m":"s))) b
          FROM nufDtl g}'
  keyMap='{numint}'
  textMap='{TOSTRING(dtl)}'/>-->

Sample

formatNumberSample.fls.xml

...
<datepicker id="dateDate"
  label="Pick a date"
  dateFormat='(dtf yyyy"-"MM"-"dd)'
  invalidDateMessage="That's not a date."/>
<textview label="Your date in big-endian order"
  text='{FORMATDTL(dateDate.date, (dtf yyyy"/"MM"/"dd))}'/>
<textview label="Your date in little-endian order"
  text='{FORMATDTL(dateDate.date, (dtf dd"."MM"."yyyy))}'/>
<textview label="Your date in middle-endian order"
  text='{FORMATDTL(dateDate.date, (dtf MM" "dd" "yyyy))}'/>
...

Figure 300. Depending on the dateFormat you pass it, formatDtl() will parse the same dtl into any number of strings

Developer Documentation

Data-binding Reference