Code Explanation: formatDateTime(convertFromUTC(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time'),'yyyy-MM-dd')

Overview

The provided code snippet appears to be written in a language or environment that supports date and time manipulation, typically seen in scripting languages such as JavaScript, Power Automate, or Flow expressions.

Function Breakdown

utcNow()

• Purpose: This function fetches the current date and time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
• Usage: It is commonly used to get the exact current moment without any time zone offsets.

convertFromUTC(utcTime, timeZone)

• Purpose: This function converts a given UTC time (utcTime) to a specified time zone (timeZone).
• Parameters:
  • utcTime: The date and time in UTC that needs to be converted.
  • timeZone: The target time zone to which the UTC time is to be converted, in this case, 'Eastern Standard Time'.
• Example:

  convertFromUTC(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time')

  Using utcNow() inside convertFromUTC() will convert the current UTC time to Eastern Standard Time (EST).

formatDateTime(dateTime, format)

• Purpose: This function formats a given date and time (dateTime) into a specified string format (format).
• Parameters:
  • dateTime: The date and time value to be formatted.
  • format: The string defining the date-time format. Here, 'yyyy-MM-dd' indicates a format of year (4 digits), month (2 digits), and day (2 digits).
• Example:

  formatDateTime(someDateTime, 'yyyy-MM-dd')

Combined Functionality

formatDateTime(convertFromUTC(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time'), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

This single expression performs the following steps in sequence:

1. Fetch current UTC time: utcNow()
2. Convert UTC time to Eastern Standard Time: convertFromUTC(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time')
3. Format the converted time to 'yyyy-MM-dd': formatDateTime(convertFromUTC(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time'), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

Detailed Explanation

• Step 1: utcNow()

  • Outputs the current UTC time, e.g., 2023-10-02T14:48:00Z.

• Step 2: convertFromUTC(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time')

  • Converts the UTC time, e.g., 2023-10-02T10:48:00-04:00 (adjusted to EST).

• Step 3: formatDateTime(convertFromUTC(utcNow(), 'Eastern Standard Time'), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

  • Formats the EST time into the 'yyyy-MM-dd' format, outputting 2023-10-02.

Summary

The entire expression is used to get the current date in Eastern Standard Time, converting from UTC and then formatting it into a human-readable date string "yyyy-MM-dd".

For deeper learning in date-time manipulations and functions, consider exploring related courses on the Enterprise DNA Platform.