The String to Date tool supports a quite narrow functionality. It is used to turn custom date column into date/datetime data formats. Generally Less is relatively good at autodetecting date formats with the Columns, but sometimes date formats require manual parsing. That’s where the String to Date tool is useful.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.less.tech/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Syntax
You tell Less how to parse your date by referring to certain formats. You can use the syntax below.Date Specifiers
Date Specifiers
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
%Y | Full year (e.g., 2001) |
%m | Month number (01-12) |
%d | Day of month (01-31) |
%B | Full month name (e.g., July) |
%b | Abbreviated month (e.g., Jul) |
%D | Short date (MM/DD/YY) |
%F | ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
%v | VMS date (DD-Mon-YYYY) |
Time Specifiers
Time Specifiers
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
%H | Hour in 24h format (00-23) |
%I | Hour in 12h format (01-12) |
%M | Minute (00-59) |
%S | Second (00-60) |
%p | AM/PM marker |
%R | 24-hour time (HH:MM) |
%T | 24-hour time with seconds (HH:MM:SS) |
Common Format Examples
Common Format Examples
| Format | Example |
|---|---|
%Y-%m-%d | 2001-07-08 |
%d/%m/%Y | 08/07/2001 |
%B %d, %Y | July 08, 2001 |
%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S | 2001-07-08 13:45:00 |
%d-%b-%Y %I:%M %p | 08-Jul-2001 01:45 PM |
Configuration
The String to Date tool consists of three required input.Example: Parsing a date like 22 Aug 2025
Here we have a date column that is formatted as day, then short abbreviated month and then the year (22 Aug 2025). We want to parse this into a date/datetime data format.