Overview

Starting with version 6.4 of the Advanced Tables for Confluence app, it is possible to specify the format that is used to view date columns. The actual data is not changed, just how it is displayed. This helps keep the data looking consistent even if the provided data is not. This can be enabled by using the Date (M) column type for the Column types parameter corresponding to the column. Advanced date sorting specifies how to use the Date (M)column type to customize the column data interpretation as a date.

Two date formats are needed to support both interpreting the data and formatting the output.

Input format - this is the first format specified on the Date (M) column type, although it is defaulted when nothing is specified. See Advanced date sorting for more details.
Display format - this is how you want the date to be displayed and sorted. If it is not specified, the column displays as-is. The display format is similar but a bit more complex than the input format. It is summarized in the succeeding sections. The ~ character is used to separated the input and display formats to avoid most conflicts with characters used in formats.

Usage

The formatting options listed on this page can be defined through the Column types parameter within the following macros:

Screenshot

Formatting options

Acknowledgement

Advanced date sorting support with the Date (M) column type is provided using JavaScript with the help of the Moment.js library (open source, MIT license). A summary of the relevant parts of the Moment.js documentation is repeated here.

Examples

Column type	Input format	Display format
M~YYYY.MM.DD	<default>	YYYY.MM.DD
MDDMMMYYYY~YYYY.MM.DD	DDMMMYYYY	YYYY.MM.DD
M(de)DDMMMYYYY~YYYY.MM.DD	(de)DDMMMYYYY	YYYY.MM.DD
MX~DD.MM.YY	Unix timestamp	DD.MM.YY
MDD MMM YYYY~YYYY.MM.DD	DD MMM YYYY Default Confluence Date Picker (US)	YYYY.MM.DD

Internationalization

See language support (i18n).