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Use Formatter to format and style dates and times. This is essential for:
- Ensuring data compatibility: Different apps may require specific date formats.
- Localizing dates and times: Adapt dates and times for different regions.
This is helpful when you need a different format in later steps in your Zap.

One app may send the data as 10/15/2024, while another might require October 15, 2024. Formatter allows you to convert between these formats.
1. Add a Formatter step
- In the Zap editor, click the Action step. A dialog box will open.
- In the search box, search for and select Formatter. The right sidebar will open to the Setup tab.
- Click the Action event dropdown menu and select Date / Time.
- Click Continue to continue to the Configure tab.
2. Select your transform
- Click the Transform field dropdown menu and select Format.
- In the Input field, map a field containing a date from the previous step.
- In the To Format dropdown menu, select a pre-defined format option.
- (Optional) In the To Timezone dropdown menu, select a timezone. The default is UTC.
- (Optional) You can explicitly set the date and time format and timezone for your Input field to ensure Zapier interprets it correctly.
- If you do not complete the From Timezone field, it will assume it is UTC.
- Click Continue to continue to the Test tab.

If a date and time format is missing from the dropdown menu, you can customize the format using a custom value.
3. Test your action
Test your action to verify it is calculating the difference between the date and time correctly.
- Click Test step.
- The Data out tab will display the new formatted date and time.
- If the new date time is not what you expect, you can adjust the transform settings and retest the step again.
Once you’ve set up your Formatter action, you can use the results in further actions in your Zap.
Customize your date and time format options
If the date and time format you need is not available in the relevant dropdown menu, you set the format as a custom value using tokens.
You can represent dates and times by combining tokens in the following table:
Date and time custom value table
Token | Output | |
---|---|---|
Year | YYYY | 2000, 2001, 2002 ... 2012, 2013 |
YY | 00, 01, 02 ... 12, 13 | |
Month | MMMM | January, February, March ... |
MMM | Jan, Feb, Mar ... | |
MM | 01, 02, 03 ... 11, 12 | |
M | 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12 | |
Day of Year | DDDD | 001, 002, 003 ... 364, 365 |
DDD | 1, 2, 3 ... 364, 365 | |
Day of Month | DD | 01, 02, 03 ... 30, 31 |
D | 1, 2, 3 ... 30, 31 | |
Do | 1st, 2nd, 3rd ... 30th, 31st | |
Day of Week | dddd | Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ... |
ddd | Mon, Tue, Wed ... | |
d | 1, 2, 3 ... 6, 7 | |
Hour | HH | 00, 01, 02 ... 23, 24 |
H | 0, 1, 2 ... 23, 24 | |
hh | 01, 02, 03 ... 11, 12 | |
h | 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12 | |
AM / PM | A | AM, PM |
a | am, pm | |
Minute | mm | 00, 01, 02 ... 58, 59 |
m | 0, 1, 2 ... 58, 59 | |
Second | ss | 00, 01, 02 ... 58, 59 |
s | 0, 1, 2 ... 58, 59 | |
Sub-second | SSS | 000, 001, 002 ... 998, 999 |
SS | 00, 01, 02 ... 98, 99 | |
S | 0, 1, 2 ... 8, 9 | |
Timezone | ZZ | -07:00, -06:00 ... +06:00, +07:00 |
Z | -0700, -0600 ... +0600, +0700 | |
Timestamp | X | 1381685817 |