# \[IGN-8635\]Convert UTC timestamp to readable date **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition81, perspective\ **Created:** [March 26, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910 "2024-03-26T17:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ian.sebryk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ian.sebryk/32/49319_2.png) [@ian.sebryk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ian.sebryk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/1 "2024-03-26T17:12:56Z")
having a bad brain day (having a cold sucks). can someone help me convert a UTC string to a readable date. i am wanting to drop this on my UDT tag so the conversion is done right at the UDT. here's the what i attempted so far: ```auto toDate(tag('[MQTT]Edge Nodes/'+{GroupID}+'/'+{AssetName}+'/tags/gpsLastUpdated')) ``` incoming string: `032615572024` desired format: `Tuesday, July 19, 3003 7:07:04 PM GMT-06:00 DST` ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/2 "2024-03-26T17:16:09Z")
You've gotta give us an example of what format the string is in and what format you want... ---
**Author:** ![ian.sebryk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ian.sebryk/32/49319_2.png) [@ian.sebryk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ian.sebryk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/3 "2024-03-26T17:19:09Z")
i was actually adding that when your message came in. i am brain dead today, but not like TOTALLY... 😆 just slow as a dead badger... ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/4 "2024-03-26T17:22:07Z")
> [@ian.sebryk](#): > > 032615572024 What date is this supposed to be? I'd expect ISO 8601 since you said "UTC String", but it's not. Best guess: March 26, 2024 15:57? ---
**Author:** ![ian.sebryk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ian.sebryk/32/49319_2.png) [@ian.sebryk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ian.sebryk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/5 "2024-03-26T17:27:04Z")
hm. that's a problem... i admit, i didn't examine that as the docs said the device reported a UTC string... dammit. regardless, is the expression good? i can find out what the hell this incoming number is; i have control over ensuring that comes in as an _actual_ UTC string (don't trust docs). given that incoming is correct, will the expression yield what i want? EDIT: i should just go home, drink Buckley's, and die until tomorrow.... ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:28pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/6 "2024-03-26T17:28:56Z")
I've been working through cold since Sunday too 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Felipe\_CRM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Felipe\_CRM](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Felipe_CRM)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/7 "2024-03-26T17:31:47Z")
> [@ian.sebryk](#): > > will the expression yield what i want? It doesn't seem to match any of the [supported formats](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/docs/8.1/appendix/expression-functions/type-casting/toDate#description) so I'm guessing it will yield an error unless you massage the string into a more standard format. EDIT: Actually since it's a valid integer it'll try to treat it like a UTC timestamp and parse it that way so you'd get a bogus DateTime ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/8 "2024-03-26T17:33:24Z")
I think the leading zero rules that out. It looks to me that it's a format like this: `"MMddHHmmyyyy"` ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/9 "2024-03-26T17:35:28Z")
```auto jshell> var df = new SimpleDateFormat("MMddHHmmyyyy") df ==> java.text.SimpleDateFormat@48f26b00 jshell> df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC")) jshell> df.parse("032615572024") $12 ==> Tue Mar 26 08:57:00 PDT 2024 ``` 08:57 PDT is 15:57 UTC ---
**Author:** ![Felipe\_CRM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Felipe\_CRM](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Felipe_CRM)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/10 "2024-03-26T17:36:53Z")
![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/b/4/b42e73b355502e296108a1a9c353f7421daa7c9a.png) Looks like the expression does ignore the leading zero and parse the string as a (edit: bogus) int timestamp. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:37pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/11 "2024-03-26T17:37:16Z")
Sure, but I assume that's just the completely wrong date/time. ---
**Author:** ![Felipe\_CRM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Felipe\_CRM](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Felipe_CRM)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/12 "2024-03-26T17:38:24Z")
Yeah, I was just going into detail on why the expression wouldn't work on that format as written. Just edited my earlier post to hopefully remove any ambiguity ---
**Author:** ![ian.sebryk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ian.sebryk/32/49319_2.png) [@ian.sebryk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ian.sebryk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:45pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/13 "2024-03-26T17:45:19Z")
so, yeah. the timestamp IS an actual UTC string... 979 years in the future. that's a little _too_ much forward thinking... 😃 the expression needs to be on the UDT. i know it works in a binding, but i want the UDT to return a readable date to the individual assets that source the UDT, thus the use of `tag()`. ---
**Author:** ![Felipe\_CRM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Felipe\_CRM](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Felipe_CRM)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:49pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/14 "2024-03-26T17:49:21Z")
Oh, so it's a Unix timestamp _in seconds_, what a weird coincidence: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/3/9/39cade39fd7c998b2bb5b9c0c1f20df87a033f1b.png) `toDate()` takes a Unix timestamp in _milli_seconds so you just need to multiply your tag value by 1000 first. ---
**Author:** ![ian.sebryk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ian.sebryk/32/49319_2.png) [@ian.sebryk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ian.sebryk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/15 "2024-03-26T17:52:06Z")
aha. 🤦‍♂️ so the expression needs to look like this then: ```auto toDate(str(int(tag('[MQTT]Edge Nodes/'+{GroupID}+'/'+{AssetName}+'/tags/gpsLastUpdated')*1000))) ``` ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/16 "2024-03-26T18:02:24Z")
I think Kevin is right. I'd use this expression: ```auto runScript( 'system.date.parse', 0, concat( tag('[MQTT]Edge Nodes/'+{GroupID}+'/'+{AssetName}+'/tags/gpsLastUpdated'), '+00' ), 'MMddHHmmyyyyX' ) ``` ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/17 "2024-03-26T18:13:22Z")
I attached this thread to the existing ticket for "add a dateParse analogue to expressions", since the `runScript` stuff is awkward and annoying. ---
**Author:** ![ian.sebryk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ian.sebryk/32/49319_2.png) [@ian.sebryk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ian.sebryk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/18 "2024-03-26T19:19:49Z")
i did something wrong: ![Screenshot 2024-03-26 131605](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/3/1/319eb8c3b1155fcdc379406e6aa18876c3c17d70.png) EDIT source device is sending wrong data. undocumented flag that generates the correct UTC string, btw. so that's where the jacked up string comes from... ---
**Author:** ![ian.sebryk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/ian.sebryk/32/49319_2.png) [@ian.sebryk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/ian.sebryk)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 8:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/19 "2024-03-26T20:53:13Z")
i'm getting the correct UTC string now (`1711485613.000000`) so i figured i could just use this expression: ```auto toDate(tag('[MQTT]Edge Nodes/'+{GroupID}+'/'+{AssetName}+'/tags/gpsLastUpdated')) ``` buuut. it doesn't work. ☹ the `tag()` takes a string, yields a string. and `toDate()` takes a string, so this should be just fine... but it isn't. it spits out this error: > Error\_ExpressionEval not sure why the fails. when i try to put it on a binding, i get a different error: > Bad\_NotFound so now i'm confused. 😕 i just want a dang date on the UDT. ---
**Author:** ![Felipe\_CRM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Felipe\_CRM](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Felipe_CRM)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910/20 "2024-03-26T20:58:04Z")
'toDate()` seems to not like the float as a string, although it takes float literals with no complaints. You can explicily parse it as a float first: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/a/e/ae4a7db7213b724d05a1e982a4188f54502a5934.png) Not sure if the fractional portion is meaningful or not so just left it as a float. Might want to look into other conversions if you'd prefer.. [Next page](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ign-8635-convert-utc-timestamp-to-readable-date/87910.md?page=2)