> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.integrate.io/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# ETL: ToDate

> Convert an input string to a datetime data type based on a specified format pattern. Use TODATE for date parsing in Integrate.io ETL pipelines.

## Description

Converts input, based on format, to datetime data type.

## Syntax

* `ToDate(milliseconds)`
* `ToDate(datetime_string)`
* `ToDate(custom_string, format)`
* `ToDate(custom_string, format, timezone)`

## Arguments

* *milliseconds* - long. The number of milliseconds from 1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z (similar to [Unix time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time "Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time") except that Unix is the number of seconds instead of milliseconds.)
* *datetime\_string* - string expression in ISO 8601 format. If the value of the expression is not in the ISO 8601 format, an exception is thrown.
* *custom\_string* - datetime value in a string expression in a custom format
* *format* - format of the custom string. See below for formatting information.
* *timezone* - timezone information in either [UTC offset or location based format](http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/timezones.html "Link: http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/timezones.html").

## Format strings

| Symbol | Meaning                      | Presentation         | Examples                            |
| ------ | ---------------------------- | -------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| G      | era                          | text                 | AD                                  |
| C      | century of era (>=0)         | number               | 20                                  |
| Y      | year of era (>=0)            | year                 | 1996                                |
|        |                              |                      |                                     |
| x      | weekyear                     | year                 | 1996                                |
| w      | week of weekyear             | number               | 27                                  |
| e      | day of week                  | number               | 2                                   |
| E      | day of week                  | text                 | Tuesday; Tue                        |
|        |                              |                      |                                     |
| y      | year                         | year                 | 1996                                |
| D      | day of year                  | number               | 189                                 |
| M      | month of year                | month                | July; Jul; 07                       |
| d      | day of month                 | number               | 10                                  |
|        |                              |                      |                                     |
| a      | halfday of day               | text                 | PM                                  |
| K      | hour of halfday (0\~11)      | number               | 0                                   |
| h      | clockhour of halfday (1\~12) | number               | 12                                  |
|        |                              |                      |                                     |
| H      | hour of day (0\~23)          | number               | 0                                   |
| k      | clockhour of day (1\~24)     | number               | 24                                  |
| m      | minute of hour               | number               | 30                                  |
| s      | second of minute             | number               | 55                                  |
| S      | fraction of second           | number               | 978                                 |
|        |                              |                      |                                     |
| z      | time zone                    | text                 | Pacific Standard Time; PST          |
| Z      | time zone offset/id          | zone                 | -0800; -08:00; America/Los\_Angeles |
|        |                              |                      |                                     |
| \\'    | escape character             | for a-z/A-Z          | T                                   |
| \\'\\' | single quote                 | literal single quote | '                                   |

Based on [http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/apidocs/org/joda/time/format/DateTimeFormat.html](http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/apidocs/org/joda/time/format/DateTimeFormat.html "Link: http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/apidocs/org/joda/time/format/DateTimeFormat.html")

## Examples

* `ToDate('2013-10-17T23:59:54.432Z')` returns datetime value 2013-10-17T23:59:54.432Z
* `ToDate(0)` returns datetime value 1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
* `ToDate(`1414877400 \* 1000`)` returns datetime value `2014-11-01T21:30:00.000Z` (takes the Unix timestamp of 1414877400 which is in seconds and multiplies it by 1000 to generate the number of milliseconds that the ToDate function requires)
* `ToDate(1585195200000)` returns datetime value `2020-03-26T04:00:00.000Z` . (When run in X-Console, explicitly cast that number as a Long datatype like this: ToDate(1585195200000L))
* `ToDate('10/17/2013 23:59:54','MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss')` returns datetime value `2013-10-17T23:59:54.000Z`
* `ToDate('10/17/2013 23:59:54','MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss','+01:00')` returns datetime value `2013-10-17T23:59:54.000+01:00`
* `ToDate('Tue Jul 02 09:18:52 +0000 2013','EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy')` returns datetime value `2013-07-02T09:18:52.000Z` (This is the datetime format used in Twitter stream).
* `ToDate('2019-03-17T12:11:04 +06:00', 'yyyy-MM-dd\'T\'HH:mm:ss Z')` returns `2019-03-17T06:11:04.000Z`

## Return value datatype

datetime

## Notes

If format or timezone are null, an exception will be thrown.

## Impact of null value

If milliseconds, *iso8601\_string* or *custom\_string* are null, returns null.