Amazon QuickSight – parseDate

The parseDate function in Amazon QuickSight converts a string to a date object based on the specified format.

Syntax

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parseDate(expression, ['format'])
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This function takes two arguments:

• expression (required): the expression to convert to a date object.

• format (optional): the format of the input string. If not specified, QuickSight will attempt to automatically determine the format.

Suppose you have a dataset containing dates in the format of ‘dd-MMM-yyyy’, such as ’01-Jan-2023′. However, QuickSight does not recognize this format as a date, so you need to convert it using the parseDate function.

Assume the following dataset:

To convert the Order Date field to a date object, you can use the parseDate function:

• Select the dataset that you want to create a calculated field for.
• Click on the “Add field” button.
• Enter the following expression:

Example

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parseDate({Order Date}, 'dd-MMM-yyyy')
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This expression converts the Order Date field to a date object based on the specified format of ‘dd-MMM-yyyy’. The resulting calculated field will be a date object that QuickSight can recognize and use for date-based visualizations.

• Click “Create field” to create the calculated field.

After creating this calculated field, the Order Date field will be recognized as a date object, and you can use it for date-based visualizations and analysis. In this example, the calculated field would have the following values:

Note that the “Order Date” column is a calculated field, and the values are not stored in the original dataset.