» formatdate Function

formatdate converts a timestamp into a different time format.

format(spec, timestamp)

In the Terraform language, timestamps are conventionally represented as strings using RFC 3339 "Date and Time format" syntax. formatdate requires the timestamp argument to be a string conforming to this syntax.

» Examples 

> formatdate("DD MMM YYYY hh:mm ZZZ", "2018-01-02T23:12:01Z")
02 Jan 2018 23:12 UTC
> formatdate("EEEE, DD-MMM-YY hh:mm:ss ZZZ", "2018-01-02T23:12:01Z")
Tuesday, 02-Jan-18 23:12:01 UTC
> formatdate("EEE, DD MMM YYYY hh:mm:ss ZZZ", "2018-01-02T23:12:01-08:00")
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 23:12:01 -0800
> formatdate("MMM DD, YYYY", "2018-01-02T23:12:01Z")
Jan 02, 2018
> formatdate("HH:MMaa", "2018-01-02T23:12:01Z")
11:01pm

» Specification Syntax

The format specification is a string that includes formatting sequences from the following table. This function is intended for producing common machine-oriented timestamp formats such as those defined in RFC822, RFC850, and RFC1123. It is not suitable for truly human-oriented date formatting because it is not locale-aware. In particular, it can produce month and day names only in English.

The specification may contain the following sequences:

Sequence Result
YYYY Four (or more) digit year, like "2006".
YY The year modulo 100, zero padded to at least two digits, like "06".
MMMM English month name unabbreviated, like "January".
MMM English month name abbreviated to three letters, like "Jan".
MM Month number zero-padded to two digits, like "01" for January.
M Month number with no padding, like "1" for January.
DD Day of month number zero-padded to two digits, like "02".
D Day of month number with no padding, like "2".
EEEE English day of week name unabbreviated, like "Monday".
EEE English day of week name abbreviated to three letters, like "Mon".
hh 24-hour number zero-padded to two digits, like "02".
h 24-hour number unpadded, like "2".
HH 12-hour number zero-padded to two digits, like "02".
H 12-hour number unpadded, like "2".
AA Hour AM/PM marker in uppercase, like "AM".
aa Hour AM/PM marker in lowercase, like "am".
mm Minute within hour zero-padded to two digits, like "05".
m Minute within hour unpadded, like "5".
ss Second within minute zero-padded to two digits, like "09".
s Second within minute, like "9".
ZZZZZ Timezone offset with colon separating hours and minutes, like "-08:00".
ZZZZ Timezone offset with just sign and digit, like "-0800".
ZZZ Like ZZZZ but with a special case "UTC" for UTC.
Z Like ZZZZZ but with a special case "Z" for UTC.

Any non-letter characters, such as punctuation, are reproduced verbatim in the output. To include literal letters in the format string, enclose them in single quotes '. To include a literal quote, escape it by doubling the quotes.

> formatdate("h'h'mm", "2018-01-02T23:12:01-08:00")
23h12
> formatdate("H 'o''clock'", "2018-01-02T23:12:01-08:00")
11 o'clock

This format specification syntax is intended to make it easy for a reader to guess which format will result even if they are not experts on the syntax. Therefore there are no predefined shorthands for common formats, but format strings for various RFC-specified formats are given below to be copied into your configuration as needed:

  • RFC 822 and RFC RFC 2822: "DD MMM YYYY hh:mm ZZZ"
  • RFC 850: "EEEE, DD-MMM-YY hh:mm:ss ZZZ"
  • RFC 1123: "EEE, DD MMM YYYY hh:mm:ss ZZZ"
  • RFC 3339: "YYYY-MM-DD'T'hh:mm:ssZ" (but this is also the input format, so such a conversion is redundant.)
  • format is a more general formatting function for arbitrary data.
  • timestamp returns the current date and time in a format suitable for input to formatdate.