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Zoho Deluge: Date & Time Format Conversion (parse, format, time zones, null-safety)

Thu Jan 23 2025
Deluge · Date/Time

Zoho Deluge: Date & Time Format Conversion (parse, format, time zones, null-safety)

Practical Deluge recipes to parse strings to dates, format Date/DateTime,convert time zones, and avoid null errors in Zoho CRM/Creator functions.

Mostafa Badawy··6 min read

Common tasks

  • Parse String → Date / Time / DateTime
  • Format with toString("pattern")
  • Convert with toTimeZone("Area/City")
  • Null safety with ifnull + guards

Watch out for…

  • Wrong format patterns (e.g., MM vs mm)
  • ISO timestamps with timezone suffix (use pattern Z)
  • Empty strings — always guard before parsing

Parse strings to Date / Time / DateTime

// String -> Date
d1 = "2025-01-23".toDate("yyyy-MM-dd");
// String -> Time (24h)
t1 = "14:45:30".toTime("HH:mm:ss");
// String -> DateTime (no timezone)
dt1 = "2025-01-23 14:45:30".toDateTime("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");

// ISO 8601 with timezone like 2025-01-23T14:45:30+04:00
dtIso = "2025-01-23T14:45:30+04:00".toDateTime("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ");

// If you have a millisecond epoch in String:
epochMs = "1737612330000".toLong();            // String → Long
dtFromEpoch = epochMs.toDateTime();            // Long(epoch ms) → DateTime

Format dates/times to strings

// Date/DateTime -> String patterns
prettyDate  = d1.toString("dd MMM yyyy");               // 23 Jan 2025
prettyTime  = t1.toString("hh:mm a");                   // 02:45 PM
prettyStamp = dt1.toString("EEE, dd MMM yyyy hh:mm a"); // Thu, 23 Jan 2025 02:45 PM

// ISO-like output (no TZ info)
isoLocal = dt1.toString("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss");
// With timezone offset in output
isoWithTZ = dtIso.toString("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ");

Convert time zones

Convert a DateTime to a different zone using IANA names (e.g., Asia/Dubai).

// Start with a DateTime (assume dtIso is parsed above)
inDubai   = dtIso.toTimeZone("Asia/Dubai");
inUTC     = dtIso.toTimeZone("UTC");
inPacific = dtIso.toTimeZone("America/Los_Angeles");

// Format after conversion
stampDubai = inDubai.toString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");

Null-safety helpers

Never parse empty strings; always guard and fall back gracefully.

// Safe parse wrappers
parseDateSafe = (s as String) =>
{
  if (isNull(s) || s.trim() == "")
  {
    return null;
  }
  return s.toDate("yyyy-MM-dd"); // adjust pattern for your input
};

parseDateTimeSafe = (s as String, pattern as String) =>
{
  if (isNull(s) || s.trim() == "")
  {
    return null;
  }
  return s.toDateTime(pattern);
};

// Usage
maybeDT = parseDateTimeSafe(input.Created_At, "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ");
whenStr = ifnull(maybeDT, zoho.currenttime).toString("dd MMM yyyy hh:mm a");

CRM & Creator field patterns

  • CRM Date fields often come as yyyy-MM-dd.
  • CRM DateTime (ISO) often includes offset: yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ.
  • Creator Date/DateTime formatting depends on form settings; inspect sample values and match patterns.

End-to-end example (transform & store)

// Input from CRM (string); normalize to UTC stamp for an external system
raw = ifnull(input.Closed_Time, "");
dt  = parseDateTimeSafe(raw, "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ");  // handles ...+04:00
utc = ifnull(dt, zoho.currenttime).toTimeZone("UTC");
payloadStamp = utc.toString("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'");

// Include in your outbound payload
out = Map();
out.put("closed_at_utc", payloadStamp);

Pattern cheatsheet

  • yyyy=year, MM=month, dd=day
  • HH=24h hours, hh=12h hours, mm=minutes, ss=seconds
  • a=AM/PM, EEE=weekday short, Z=numeric timezone (e.g., +04:00)
  • Always match the input pattern exactly when parsing.