Common GlideDateTime format string pitfalls and symbol reference - Support and Troubleshooting

Common GlideDateTime format string pitfalls and symbol reference .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } Identify and avoid common GlideDateTime format string pitfalls that can produce unexpected behavior.

When an incorrect format string is passed to GlideDateTime , the results can appear to be a platform bug but are typically caused by incorrect or ambiguous pattern symbol casing. In practice, the most common issues involve using the wrong case for year, hour, minute, and time zone symbols.

Common format string pitfalls The following table shows common format string errors and their corrections.

Pitfall Incorrect Correct Explanation Uppercase year symbol YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss YYYY is the week year, not the calendar year. Use yyyy for calendar year. Mixed 12-hour and 24-hour symbols HH:mm:ss a or hh:mm:ss hh:mm:ss a or HH:mm:ss HH is 24-hour time (0–23). hh is 12-hour time (1–12). Do not use a (AM/PM marker) with HH or kk . Ambiguous time zone abbreviation HH:mm:ss z HH:mm:ss zzzz A single z produces non-unique abbreviations — for example, IST can mean India Standard Time or Israel Standard Time. Use zzzz for the full time zone name. Using MM for both month and minute MM-dd-yyyy HH:MM MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm MM is the month symbol. mm is the minute symbol. Using MM in the time portion returns the month value instead of the minute value. Using DDD for day of the month yyyy-DDD-MM yyyy-MM-dd DDD is the day of the year (1–365), not the day of the month. Use dd for the day of the month. Symbol guide The following table describes the pattern symbols used in GlideDateTime format strings. These symbols follow the Java SimpleDateFormat specification.

Symbol Meaning Example Notes G Era designator AD y Calendar year 1996; 96 Use this for calendar year. Y Week year 2009; 09 Week year differs from calendar year. Avoid using Y unless specifically working with ISO week dates. M Month in year July; Jul; 07 w Week in year 27 W Week in month 2 D Day in year 189 Returns the day of the year (1–365), not the day of the month. d Day in month 10 Use this for the day of the month. F Day of week in month 2 E Day name in week Tuesday; Tue u Day number of week 1 1 = Monday, 7 = Sunday a AM/PM marker AM Do not use with H or k (24-hour symbols). H Hour in day (0–23) 0 24-hour clock. Do not use with a . k Hour in day (1–24) 1 24-hour clock. Do not use with a . K Hour in AM/PM (0–11) 0 12-hour clock. Use with a . h Hour in AM/PM (1–12) 1 12-hour clock. Use with a . m Minute in hour 30 s Second in minute 55 S Millisecond 978 z General time zone PST; GMT-08:00 Avoid single z — abbreviations are not unique. Use zzzz for the full time zone name.

For more information about date and time pattern symbols, see the Date and Time Patterns section of the Java SimpleDateFormat documentation .