{"id":14637,"date":"2025-07-28T11:33:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/?post_type=ht_kb&p=14637"},"modified":"2025-07-28T11:33:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:33:41","slug":"date-functions-within-freemarker","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/knowledge-base\/date-functions-within-freemarker","title":{"rendered":"Date Functions within Freemarker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Freemarker provides powerful formatting options for working with dates, whether you’re displaying timestamps, converting numeric values to date formats, or transforming how a date is shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formatting Date Values<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When working with m-Power, it’s recommended to first convert your value to a date<\/strong> using ?date(...)<\/code> with the correct incoming format. Once the value is treated as a date, you can then format it using ?string(...)<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your field is stored as a string in yyyyMMdd<\/code> format (e.g., \"20030408\"<\/code>), use the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

${row.ORDERDATE?date(\"yyyyMMdd\")?string[\"MM\/dd\/yyyy\"]}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Sample Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
04\/08\/2003<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
SimpleDateFormat Pattern Reference Table<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Freemarker allows you to use Java\u2019s SimpleDateFormat<\/code> patterns with the ?string<\/code> built-in. Below are some common examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pattern<\/th>Meaning<\/th>Example Output<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
y<\/code><\/td>Year (e.g., yy<\/code> = 2-digit, yyyy<\/code> = 4-digit)<\/td>03<\/code>, 2003<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
M<\/code><\/td>Month (1\u201312)<\/td>4<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
MM<\/code><\/td>Two-digit month (01\u201312)<\/td>04<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
MMM<\/code><\/td>Abbreviated month name<\/td>Apr<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
MMMM<\/code><\/td>Full month name<\/td>April<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
d<\/code><\/td>Day of the month (1\u201331)<\/td>8<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
dd<\/code><\/td>Two-digit day of the month<\/td>08<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
E<\/code><\/td>Abbreviated day of the week<\/td>Tue<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
EEEE<\/code><\/td>Full day of the week<\/td>Tuesday<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
h<\/code><\/td>Hour (1\u201312, no leading zero)<\/td>9<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
hh<\/code><\/td>Hour (1\u201312, two digits)<\/td>09<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
H<\/code><\/td>Hour (0\u201323, no leading zero)<\/td>21<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
HH<\/code><\/td>Hour (0\u201323, two digits)<\/td>21<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
m<\/code><\/td>Minutes (0\u201359)<\/td>4<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
mm<\/code><\/td>Two-digit minutes<\/td>04<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
s<\/code><\/td>Seconds (0\u201359)<\/td>9<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
ss<\/code><\/td>Two-digit seconds<\/td>09<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
a<\/code><\/td>AM\/PM marker<\/td>PM<\/code><\/td><\/tr>
z<\/code><\/td>Time zone abbreviation<\/td>PDT<\/code><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Tip: <\/strong>You can mix symbols to get exactly the format you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Example Usage in Freemarker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
${row.ORDERDATE?date(\"yyyy-MM-dd\")?string[\"MM\/dd\/yyyy\"]}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Output<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
04\/08\/2003<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Other Examples in Freemarker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
${row.ORDERDATE?date(\"yyyyMMdd\")?string[\"dd.MM.yyyy, HH:mm\"]}
${row.ORDERDATE?date(\"yyyyMMdd\")?string[\"EEEE, MMMM dd, yyyy, hh:mm a '('zzz')'\"]}
${row.ORDERDATE?date(\"yyyyMMdd\")?string[\"EEE, MMM d, ''yy\"]}<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Sample Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
08.04.2003, 21:24
Tuesday, April 08, 2003, 09:24 PM (PDT)
Tue, Apr 8, '03<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Formatting Non-Date Values into Dates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, your data might not be a date value but still represent a date component\u2014like a numeric month (e.g., 1, 2, 10). You can still use Freemarker to display these values as formatted dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Example: Numeric Month \u2192 Month Abbreviation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
${row.MONTHNUM?date('M')?string('MMM')}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Sample Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jan, Feb, Oct, Nov<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Example: Numeric Month \u2192 Full Month Name<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
${row.MONTHNUM?date('M')?string('MMMM')}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Sample Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
January, February, October, November<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Notes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
These formats can be customized to meet your localization or styling needs using the SimpleDateFormat<\/code> symbols. Refer to Java\u2019s SimpleDateFormat documentation<\/a> for the full list of formatting options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Freemarker provides powerful formatting options for working with dates, whether you’re displaying timestamps, converting numeric values to date formats, or transforming how a date is shown. Formatting Date Values When working with m-Power, it’s recommended to first convert your value to a date using ?date(…) with the correct incoming format….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[265],"ht-kb-tag":[],"class_list":["post-14637","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-freemarker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/14637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/14637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14639,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/14637\/revisions\/14639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-category?post=14637"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-tag?post=14637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}