> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cgps.gitbook.io/data-flo/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cgps.gitbook.io/data-flo/reference-guide/convert-date-to-text.md).

# convert-date-to-text

## Description

<mark style="color:purple;">`convert-date-to-text`</mark> *adaptor can be used to convert a date/time value to text in a specified format.*

If no input value is provided, the current date/time will be used.

## Inputs

**`value`**\
Type: `text`\
Required: No\
The input date/time value. If unspecified, the current date/time will be used.

**`format`**\
Type: `text`\
Required: No\
The format of data in column one based on [Unicode Technical Standard #35](< https://date-fns.org/v2.0.1/docs/parse#:~:text=Accepted%20format%20string%20patterns%3A>). If unspecified, defaults to ISO 8601 date/time.

**`locale`**\
Type: `text`\
Required: No\
A l[anguage locale](< https://date-fns.org/v2.28.0/docs/Locale>) to be used when formatting the values. If unspecified, it defaults to `en-US`.

**`timezone`**\
Type: `text`\
Required: No\
The three letter code of the timezone (e.g., UTC).

## Outputs

**`text`**\
Type: `text`\
The date as a formatted text.

## Examples

### Example 1: Default behaviour.

#### Inputs:

No inputs provided.

#### Outputs:

`text`: 2020-02-28T08:00:00+00:00

-> As no inputs were provided, the current date/time was retuned.

### Example 2: Formatted date.

#### Inputs:

`format`: MM/dd/yyyy

#### Outputs:

`text`: 02/28/2020

-> Provided a format to return a month-day-year date string.

### Example 3: Formatted time.

#### Inputs:

`format`: HH:mm

#### Outputs:

`text`: 08:00

-> Provided a format to return only the current time.

### Example 4: Formatted time with locale code.

#### Inputs:

`format`: MMMM

`locale`: es

#### Outputs:

`text`: febrero

-> In this example, we set `locale` input to `es` (the [ISO 639 language code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639_language_codes) for Spanish) to get the name of the current month in Spanish.

## Use Cases

* Adding a timestamp by leaving the input date/time blank.&#x20;