# parseDate
parseDate

`parseDate` parses a string to determine if it contains a date value, and returns a standard date in the format `yyyy-MM-ddTkk:mm:ss.SSSZ` (using the format pattern syntax specified in [Class DateTimeFormat](http://www.joda.org/joda-time/apidocs/org/joda/time/format/DateTimeFormat.html) in the Joda project documentation), for example 2015-10-15T19:11:51.003Z. This function returns all rows that contain a date in a valid format and skips any rows that don't, including rows that contain null values.

Quick supports dates in the range from Jan 1, 1900 00:00:00 UTC to Dec 31, 2037 23:59:59 UTC. For more information, see [Supported date formats](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/quicksight/latest/user/supported-date-formats.html).

## Syntax


```
parseDate(expression, ['format'])
```

## Arguments


 *expression*   
The expression must be a string. It can be the name of a field that uses the string data type, a literal value like **'1/1/2016'**, or a call to another function that outputs a string.

 *format*   
(Optional) A string containing the format pattern that *date\$1string* must match. For example, if you are using a field with data like **01/03/2016**, you specify the format 'MM/dd/yyyy'. If you don't specify a format, it defaults to `yyyy-MM-dd`. Rows whose data doesn't conform to *format* are skipped.   
Different date formats are supported based on the type of dataset used. Use the following table to see details of supported date formats.    
****    
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.amazonaws.cn/en_us/quick/latest/userguide/parseDate-function.html)

## Return type


Date

## Example


The following example evaluates `prodDate` to determine if it contains date values.

```
parseDate(prodDate, 'MM/dd/yyyy')
```

The following are the given field values.

```
prodDate
--------
01-01-1999
12/31/2006
1/18/1982 
7/4/2010
```

For these field values, the following rows are returned.

```
12-31-2006T00:00:00.000Z
01-18-1982T00:00:00.000Z
07-04-2010T00:00:00.000Z
```