Date fields and Date formatting

How to import and export date fields with different formats

Ardis Kadiu avatar
Written by Ardis Kadiu
Updated over a week ago

This guide relates to our legacy Import + Export Module.

While available until March 31, 2024, we encourage you to experience the benefits of our upgraded Import + Export Module. It's designed to streamline your workflow with enhanced capabilities.

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Date fields coming from different data sources like the Common App, CollegeBoard, or even your own Student Information System have their own date formats. The Import and Export module allows you to work with with dates of different formats by transforming them to a standard internal date format. 

Importing Dates

The default date/time format accepted is 2018-10-09 19:37:58 or 2018-10-09, however, changing this format is relatively straightforward.

When you add a date field to your import file and click on the gear box, you can select your date import transformations, which will allow you to select which format you wish to import as. Each option will also give you an example.

The lowercase letters indicate 2 character entries, while the uppercase letters indicate 4 character entries.  For example, y would be 19, while Y would be 2019.

For all dates, you should also remember to update the Empty Values tab to "Don't import it" so that the system doesn't try to import empty values.

Just remember to make sure that your csv or text file are formatted properly and you're not missing your leading 0 if you're importing months like 04/04/2004.

Exporting Dates

Exporting dates follows a very similar process and is just as customizable as importing them.  When you add a date field to your export and click the gear button, you are given a similar popup transformation selection where you can select the format that you wish to export your date in.

Note: While offering as flexible an import tool as possible, we recommend trying to keep as many of your dates consistent as possible. It's very easy to format your date incorrectly and import wrong data, which is never a good thing!

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