Docs Menu
Docs Home
/
MongoDB Manual
/
Aggregation Operations
/
Reference
/
Operators

$dateToString (aggregation)

On this page

  • Definition
  • Compatibility
  • Syntax
  • Format Specifiers
  • Example

Definition

$dateToString

Converts a date object to a string according to a user-specified format.

Compatibility

You can use $dateToString for deployments hosted in the following environments:

  • MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

  • MongoDB Enterprise: The subscription-based, self-managed version of MongoDB

  • MongoDB Community: The source-available, free-to-use, and self-managed version of MongoDB

Syntax

The $dateToString expression has the following operator expression syntax:

{ $dateToString: {
    date: <dateExpression>,
    format: <formatString>,
    timezone: <tzExpression>,
    onNull: <expression>
} }

The $dateToString takes a document with the following fields:

Field
Description
date

Changed in version 3.6.

The date to convert to string. <dateExpression> must be a valid expression that resolves to a Date, a Timestamp, or an ObjectID.

format

Optional. The date format specification. <formatString> can be any string literal, containing 0 or more format specifiers. For a list of specifiers available, see Format Specifiers.

If unspecified, $dateToString uses "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%LZ" as the default format.

timezone

Optional. The timezone of the operation result. <tzExpression> must be a valid expression that resolves to a string formatted as either an Olson Timezone Identifier or a UTC Offset. If no timezone is provided, the result is displayed in UTC.

Format
Examples
Olson Timezone Identifier
"America/New_York"
"Europe/London"
"GMT"
UTC Offset
+/-[hh]:[mm], e.g. "+04:45"
+/-[hh][mm], e.g. "-0530"
+/-[hh], e.g. "+03"
onNull

Optional. The value to return if the date is null or missing. The arguments can be any valid expression.

If unspecified, $dateToString returns null if the date is null or missing.

Tip

See also:

Format Specifiers

The following format specifiers are available for use in the <formatString>:

Specifiers
Description
Possible Values
%b

Abbreviated month name (3 letters)

New in version 7.0.

jan-dec
%B

Full month name

New in version 7.0.

january-december
%d
Day of month (2 digits, zero padded)
01-31
%G
Year in ISO 8601 format
0000-9999
%H
Hour (2 digits, zero padded, 24-hour clock)
00-23
%j
Day of year (3 digits, zero padded)
001-366
%L
Millisecond (3 digits, zero padded)
000-999
%m
Month (2 digits, zero padded)
01-12
%M
Minute (2 digits, zero padded)
00-59
%S
Second (2 digits, zero padded)
00-60
%u
Day of week number in ISO 8601 format (1-Monday, 7-Sunday)
1-7
%U
Week of year (2 digits, zero padded)
00-53
%V
Week of Year in ISO 8601 format
01-53
%w
Day of week (1-Sunday, 7-Saturday)
1-7
%Y
Year (4 digits, zero padded)
0000-9999
%z
The timezone offset from UTC.
+/-[hh][mm]
%Z
The minutes offset from UTC as a number. For example, if the timezone offset (+/-[hhmm]) was +0445, the minutes offset is +285.
+/-mmm
%%
Percent Character as a Literal
%

Example

Consider a sales collection with the following document:

{
  "_id" : 1,
  "item" : "abc",
  "price" : 10,
  "quantity" : 2,
  "date" : ISODate("2014-01-01T08:15:39.736Z")
}

The following aggregation uses $dateToString to return the date field as formatted strings:

db.sales.aggregate(
   [
     {
       $project: {
          yearMonthDayUTC: { $dateToString: { format: "%Y-%m-%d", date: "$date" } },
          timewithOffsetNY: { $dateToString: { format: "%H:%M:%S:%L%z", date: "$date", timezone: "America/New_York"} },
          timewithOffset430: { $dateToString: { format: "%H:%M:%S:%L%z", date: "$date", timezone: "+04:30" } },
          minutesOffsetNY: { $dateToString: { format: "%Z", date: "$date", timezone: "America/New_York" } },
          minutesOffset430: { $dateToString: { format: "%Z", date: "$date", timezone: "+04:30" } },
          abbreviated_month: { $dateToString: {format: "%b", date: "$date", timezone: "+04:30" } },
          full_month: { $dateToString: { format: "%B", date: "$date", timezone: "+04:30" } }
       }
     }
   ]
)

The operation returns the following result:

{
   "_id" : 1,
   "yearMonthDayUTC" : "2014-01-01",
   "timewithOffsetNY" : "03:15:39:736-0500",
   "timewithOffset430" : "12:45:39:736+0430",
   "minutesOffsetNY" : "-300",
   "minutesOffset430" : "270",
   "abbreviated_month": "Jan",
   "full_month": "January"
}

Back

$dateToParts

Next

$dateTrunc