如何在freemarker中将日期转换为字符串？

Question

i did this way..

<#assign createdOn='${receipt.arPaymDate}'>
${createdOn?datetime("MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss 'GMT'Z")?date}

But i am getting below execption

Can't convert the date-like value to string because it isn't known if it's a date (no time part), time or date-time value. The blamed expression: ==> receipt.arPaymDate [in template "WEB-INF/ftl/receiptPdf.ftl" at line 22, column 47]

thanks in advened

Answer 1

You may need first init the date format

<#setting date_format="dd-MM-yyyy">

<#assign createdOn='${receipt.arPaymDate}'> 
${createdOn?datetime("MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss 'GMT'Z")?date}

Also see How to convert date in specific format in Freemarker template or javascript

Answer 2

It depends on what's the type of receipt.arPaymDate is.

In any case, you shouldn't write <#assign createdOn='${receipt.arPaymDate}'> , but <#assign createdOn=receipt.arPaymDate> , as the former converts receipt.arPaymDate to a string (as you insert into an empty string there), even if it was already a java.util.Date . If it was a String , then it does nothing, so it's needless verbosity.

If receipt.arPaymDate is a java.util.Date , and you do the assignment without the '${...}' , you don't need the ?datetime(...) part, only the ?date part: ${createdOn?date} . (Even the ?date can be omitted if receipt.arPaymDate is a java.sql.Date , as that's known to store the date part only, not time.)

If receipt.arPaymDate is a string, so you must parse it to date, you can just write ${createdOn?date("MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss 'GMT'Z")} . It's not a problem that the pattern has time part, ?date will still mark the result as a date-only value.

Also, just in case it wasn't clear, the assignment in this example is unnecessary. One can just write ${receipt.arPaymDate?date} .