`date_format`

Parse and format dates/timestamps.

Parameters

inputstring*: Date string to parse; supports ${ctx.key} interpolation. Use "now" for current time
source_keystring*: Context key whose value will be used as the date string
input_formatstringdefault auto-detect: strftime format of the input date string
output_formatstringdefault "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S": strftime format for the output
output_keystringdefault "formatted_date": Context key under which the formatted date is stored
timezonestringdefault UTC: Timezone offset: "UTC", "+02:00", "-05:00"

*Exactly one of input or source_key must be provided. Providing both is an error.

Auto-detected Input Formats

When input_format is not specified, the node tries these formats in order:

RFC 3339 (2024-06-15T10:30:00Z, 2024-06-15T10:30:00+02:00)
RFC 2822 (Sat, 15 Jun 2024 10:30:00 +0000)
%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S (2024-06-15 10:30:00)
%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S (2024-06-15T10:30:00)
%Y-%m-%d (2024-06-15)

Context Output

{output_key} -- formatted date string
{output_key}_unix -- unix timestamp in seconds

Example

local flow = Flow.new("date_demo")

flow:step("now", nodes.date_format({
    input = "now",
    output_format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S UTC",
    output_key = "current_time"
}))

flow:step("parse", nodes.date_format({
    input = "2024-06-15T10:30:00Z",
    output_format = "%B %d, %Y at %I:%M %p",
    output_key = "pretty_date"
})):depends_on("now")

flow:step("log", nodes.log({
    message = "Current: ${ctx.current_time} | Formatted: ${ctx.pretty_date}",
    level = "info"
})):depends_on("parse")

return flow

Using source_key:

local flow = Flow.new("date_from_ctx")

flow:step("format_it", nodes.date_format({
    source_key = "event_timestamp",
    output_format = "%Y-%m-%d",
    output_key = "event_date"
}))

return flow