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Convert Date to String

The Convert Date to String transformer takes any number of DATE attributes and converts them to a String type.

Use

Use Convert Date to String where you want to treat a date as text for processing purposes. For example, in order to extract the day, month and year parts of a date to separate attributes for matching, you may wish to convert the date to a String type, and then use Trim Characters to extract the different parts.

Note that the Date is converted to a String value with a standard international format for dates (dd-MMM-yyyy, for example, 25-Apr-2006).

Configuration

Inputs

Any number of Date attributes that you wish to convert to a String type.

Options

Option

Type

Purpose

Default Value

Output format

Entry of a date format

The format of the date used to create the new String value

dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss (See Note below)

Time zone

Time Zone

The time zone to use for the output string value. The string will be produced by converting the supplied date to this time zone.

Note: The input date value does not have an associated time zone, as all dates are stored as UTC values.

Director Time Zone

Note:The output format expressed must conform to the standard Java 1.5 or Java 1.6 SimpleDateFormat API. To understand how to specify a format for the correct output of dates, see the online Java documentation here.

Outputs

Data attributes

For each attribute input, a new attribute is created in the following format:

Data attribute	Type	Purpose	Value
[Attribute Name].DateToString	Derived	Stores the result of the DATE to String conversion	The original attribute value, converted to a String type

Flags

None

Execution

Execution Mode	Supported
Batch	Yes
Real time Monitoring	Yes
Real time Response	Yes

Results Browsing

The Convert Date to String transformer presents no summary statistics on its processing.

In the Data view, each input attribute is shown with its new derived String type attribute to the right.

Output Filters

None

Example

In this example, Convert Date to String is used to convert a DT_LAST_PAYMENT attribute to a String type. Note that in this case, the user strips the time element during the date conversion by deleting the time element (HH:mm:ss) from the Output Format.