DateParse()

Returns a formatted date from a date string.

Availability

<table> <tr> <td>Marketing Cloud Engagement</td> <td>✅ Yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Marketing Cloud Next</td> <td>✅ Yes, <a href="#differences-between-marketing-cloud-engagement-and-marketing-cloud-next">with some differences</a></td> </tr> </table>

This function became available in Marketing Cloud Next during the Summer ’26 release (API version 67.0).

Differences Between Marketing Cloud Engagement and Marketing Cloud Next

In Marketing Cloud Engagement, this function returns a dateTime object that other functions can reformat.

In Marketing Cloud Next, this function returns a string formatted with the G standard format. This format uses a combination of a short date value and a long time value. For example, in the en_US locale, this function outputs a timestamp that’s similar to this example: 5/15/2026 1:23:45 PM. Because the output is a string and is formatted based on locale rules, you can’t reliably pass it through other functions that expect a date-time string, such as FormatDate(). If your use case requires you to parse and then format a date, use FormatDate() instead.

Syntax

DateParse(dateString, boolUseUtc)

The DateParse() function has two parameters:

dateString (string): Required. A string that contains a date or timestamp.
boolUseUtc (boolean): If true, the function returns the date and time in UTC time. If false, the function uses the local time defined by your Business Unit. The default value is false.

Supported Date Formats

You can specify a date string in several formats, including:

ISO 8601 timestamp: 2023-08-05T13:41:23-06:00
ISO 8601 date: 2023-08-05
US date and time notation: 8/5/2023 1:41 PM
Long-form notation: 5 August 2023 or August 5, 2023
Date and time: 2023-08-05 1:41:23 PM
Time only: 1:41 PM
Chinese and Japanese notation: 2023 年 8 月 5 日
Korean notation: 2023년 8월 5일

The function doesn’t support these formats:

Dates in which the day includes an ordinal suffix, such as August 5th, 2023 or 5th August 2023.
Little-endian numeral notation, such as 5/8/2023 to represent the 5th of August, 2023.
Month names in languages other than English, such as 5 août 2023.
Dates that include any numerals other than Western Arabic numerals, such as ٢٠٢٣/٨/٥.
Dates based on any calendar system other than the Gregorian calendar, such as 18 Av, 5783 or 18 Muharram, 1445.

Usage

This example prints the current time in UTC.

%%[
  Var @now, @nowUtc
  Set @now = Now()
  Set @nowUtc = DateParse(@now, true)

]%%
<p>The current UTC time is: %%=v(@nowUtc)=%%.</p>