Format a date field

When you format a date field, you can choose a list of common formatting options. Or you can open the Format data pane to choose from a list of common formats, or specify custom formatting for the date and time values.

Changing a field format changes it for all visuals in the analysis that use that dataset, but does not change it in the dataset itself.

If you want to format a date field by choosing from a list of common options, you can access such a list in several ways. You can access it from the Field list pane, a visual on-visual editor, or a visual field well.

To change a date field's format by choosing a list option

1. Choose one of the following options:

   • In the Field list pane, choose the selector icon to the right of the number field that you want to format.

   • On any visual that contains an on-visual editor associated with the number field that you want to format, choose that on-visual editor. Expand the Field wells pane, and then choose the field well associated with the number field that you want to change.

2. Choose Format, and then choose the format that you want. The following quick formatting options are offered for date fields:

   • Show the month, day, year, and time.

   • Show the month, day, and year.

   • Show the month and year.

   • Show the year.

To manually change a date field's format

1. Choose one of the following options:

   • In the Field list pane, choose the selector icon to the right of the number field that you want to format.

   • On any visual that contains an on-visual editor associated with the number field that you want to format, choose that on-visual editor. Expand the Field wells pane, and then choose the field well associated with the number field that you want to change.

2. Choose Format, and then choose More Formatting Options.

   The Format data pane opens.

3. Expand the Date section. Choose an existing date format, or choose Custom and specify a format pattern in the Custom section lower down in the Format data pane. If you choose Custom for the Date section, you must also choose Custom for the following Time section. The pattern that you specify in the Custom section must include any date and time formatting that you want.

   The default selection is Custom, with a default format pattern of MMM D, YYYY h:mma, for example Sep 20, 2022 5:30pm.

4. Expand the Time section. Choose an existing time format, or choose Custom and specify a format pattern in the Custom section lower down in the Format data pane. If you choose Custom for the Time section, you must also choose Custom for the preceding Date section. The pattern that you specify in the Custom section must include any date and time formatting that you want.

   The default selection is Custom, with a default format pattern of MMM D, YYYY h:mma, for example Sep 20, 2022 5:30pm.

5. If you chose Custom in the Date and Time sections, expand the Custom section and specify the format pattern that you want, using the format pattern syntax specified in Moment.js Display Format in the Moment.js JavaScript documentation.

   NOTE   Time zone related display tokens (Z and z) from the Moment.js library are not supported in Insights.

   If you chose something other than Custom in the Date and Time sections, Custom is populated with the format pattern that reflects your selections. For example, if you chose Jun 21, 2016 in the Date section and 17:00:00pm in the Time section, the Custom section shows the format pattern MMM D, YYYY H:mm:ssa.

6. (Optional) Expand the Custom section and use Preview to verify your specified format.

7. Expand the Null values section and choose whether to display null values as null or as a custom value. Using null is the default.