Date Format

The Date Format node reformats a date field from its stored format into a display format. Use it to convert database timestamps into human-readable dates.

Configuration

Property	Type	Default	Description
field	string	--	Required. The field containing the date string.
format	string	Y-m-d	PHP date format string.
outputField	string	{field}_formatted	The field name where the formatted date is stored. Defaults to the input field name with _formatted appended.

Input

Accepts a single object or an array of rows.

Output

Returns the same rows with an additional field containing the formatted date string. If the date cannot be parsed, the output field is an empty string.

PHP Date Format Tokens

Token	Description	Example
Y	4-digit year	2025
y	2-digit year	25
m	Month (zero-padded)	03
n	Month (no padding)	3
F	Full month name	March
M	Short month name	Mar
d	Day (zero-padded)	05
j	Day (no padding)	5
D	Short day name	Wed
l	Full day name	Wednesday
H	Hour (24h, zero-padded)	14
h	Hour (12h, zero-padded)	02
i	Minutes (zero-padded)	30
s	Seconds (zero-padded)	00
A	AM/PM	PM
a	am/pm	pm

Example Formats

Format	Result
Y-m-d	2025-03-15
F j, Y	March 15, 2025
m/d/Y	03/15/2025
d.m.Y	15.03.2025
M j, Y g:i A	Mar 15, 2025 2:30 PM
D, M j	Sat, Mar 15
H:i	14:30

Example Use Cases

Format a creation date

field: "created_at"
format: "F j, Y"
outputField: "created_display"

Input: "2025-03-15 14:30:00" produces "March 15, 2025"

Format for a European locale

field: "order_date"
format: "d.m.Y H:i"
outputField: "order_date_formatted"

Input: "2025-03-15 14:30:00" produces "15.03.2025 14:30"

Time-only display

field: "event_time"
format: "g:i A"
outputField: "time_display"

Input: "2025-03-15 14:30:00" produces "2:30 PM"

TIP

For quick date formatting in templates, use the date_format() expression function instead: { {date_format(row.created_at, 'F j, Y')}}. The Date Format node is more efficient when formatting the same field across many rows.