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ParseDateTime

Last update:
May 18, 2026

Description

Parses a date/time string according to the English (U.S.) locale conventions. (To format a date/time string for other locales, use the LSParseDateTime function.)

Returns

A date/time object

Category

Date and time functions, Display and formatting functions

Function syntax

ParseDateTime(date/time-string [, pop-conversion ])

See also

IsDate, IsNumericDate, SetLocale

Parameters

Parameter
Description
date/time string
A string containing a date/time value formatted according to U.S. locale conventions. Can represent a date/time in the range 100 AD-9999 AD. Years 0-29 are interpreted as 2000-2029; years 30-99 are interpreted as 1930-1999.
pop-conversion
  • pop: specifies that the date/time string is in POP format, which includes the local time of the sender and a time-zone offset from UTC. ColdFusion applies the offset and returns a value with the UTC time.
  • standard: (the default) function does no conversion.
Apart from these 2 values, this parameter allows you to specify the format in which to parse the given string.
Valid letters that can be used to specify the format are described here http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html
For instance:
<cfset str = "Fri Jan 03 04:30:10 EDT 2014">

<cfset date = parsedateTime(str,"EEE MMM dd HH:nn:ss zzz yyyy")>
Another example:
<cfset string = "1997-07-16T19:20:30+01:00">

<cfset date = parseDateTime(string, "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:nn:ssX")>

Usage

This function is similar to CreateDateTime, but it takes a string instead of enumerated date/time values. These functions are provided primarily to increase the readability of code in compound expressions.To calculate a difference between time zones, use the GetTimeZoneInfo function. To set the default display format of date , time, number, and currency values, use the SetLocale function.

Example

<cfscript>
    dateTimeVar = dateTimeFormat(now(), "yyyy.MM.dd HH:nn:ss ") 
    writeOutput(parseDateTime(dateTimeVar)) 
</cfscript>
Output
{ts '2018-11-06 07:02:37'}

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