I need to pull data from an API that needs a timestamp as a parameter. This API retrieves data from a system (not in my control) that is based in the America/Las_Angeles timezone. I have tried for hours to find a way to generate a non-UTC Date object (LocalDateTime object doesn’t contain a getTime() method) so that I can call .getTime() but I seem to only be able to get a string value of the converted UTC Date into my desired timezone. I tried to find a way to use the getTimezoneOffset() function, but I need a non-UTC Date object in order to get the valid offset from so I’m back to square one. Can anyone provide an example of creating a Date object in Snap with a non-UTC timezone that I can call getTime()? (I just need to generate a timestamp based on a PST Date with a 00:00:00 time) I tried creating the converted string (which I can’t get to include the timezone, because even though the docs point to SimpleDateFormat (Java Platform SE 7 ) as a reference I cannot get the value output for any of the time zone components) and appending ’ PST’ but it still created a UTC Date. I have spent way too long trying to do something so simple that is a couple lines of code in almost any language and needs some guidance lol.

Date.now().toLocaleDateString({"timeZone":"America/Los_Angeles", "format":"yyyy-MM-dd"}) + " 00:00:00" It will “handle” whether it’s currently PDT or PST.

shane: Can anyone provide an example of creating a Date object in Snap with a non-UTC timezone that I can call getTime()? I’m not sure what you’re asking here since getTime(), by definition, returns the epoch timestamp, which is UTC.

I don’t think you read the issue fully. I DON’T want UTC based timestamp and you cannot call getTime() on LocalDateTime or LocalDate which is used to create a non-UTC Date object. I cannot find a way to get the timestamp for a non-UTC Date. It doesn’t matter I guess as I altered the called service to accommodate things.

@shane You can use Date.now().toLocaleDateTimeString(’ { “timeZone”:“EST” , " format" :" YYYY-MM-DD" }')

That will give you a date-time string but not a timestamp. Try to create a timestamp from that and that is my issue.

Can't create a non-UTC Date object to call .getTime() on | SnapLogic - Integration Nation

15 Replies

christwr
Contributor III
6 years ago
Date.now().toLocaleDateString({"timeZone":"America/Los_Angeles", "format":"yyyy-MM-dd"}) + " 00:00:00"

It will “handle” whether it’s currently PDT or PST.
- shane
  New Contributor II
  6 years ago
  That will get you a date-time string not a timestamp. How do you turn that into a timestamp?
tstack
Former Employee
6 years ago

shane:

Can anyone provide an example of creating a Date object in Snap with a non-UTC timezone that I can call getTime()?

I’m not sure what you’re asking here since getTime(), by definition, returns the epoch timestamp, which is UTC.
- shane
  New Contributor II
  6 years ago
  I don’t think you read the issue fully. I DON’T want UTC based timestamp and you cannot call getTime() on LocalDateTime or LocalDate which is used to create a non-UTC Date object. I cannot find a way to get the timestamp for a non-UTC Date.
  
  It doesn’t matter I guess as I altered the called service to accommodate things.
  - tstack
    Former Employee
    6 years ago
    
    shane:
    
    I cannot find a way to get the timestamp for a non-UTC Date.
    
    In general, a timestamp is the number of seconds/milliseconds from the epoch, where the epoch is defined as January 1st, 1970 00:00:00 UTC. So, a timestamp is pretty much always going to be based in UTC. Asking for a non-UTC timestamp is highly unusual.
Supratim
Contributor III
6 years ago
@shane

You can use Date.now().toLocaleDateTimeString(’ { “timeZone”:“EST” , " format" :" YYYY-MM-DD" }')
- shane
  New Contributor II
  6 years ago
  That will give you a date-time string but not a timestamp. Try to create a timestamp from that and that is my issue.
  - stevegoodwin
    Employee
    6 years ago
    if you want to adjust a GMT timestamp to PST (-7), what about:
    Date.now().getTime() + (3600 * -7)
    or
    Date.parse(Date.now().plusHours(-7)).getTime()
christwr
Contributor III
6 years ago
Date.parse(Date.now().toLocaleDateString({"timeZone":"America/Los_Angeles"})).getTime()
- shane
  New Contributor II
  6 years ago
  So that is the first thing I tried, but it gives me a UTC DateTime object at 00:00:00 for the Date, and calls getTime() on it. You cannot call getTime() without the Date.parse() which turns it into a UTC timezone because toLocalDateString() and toLocalDateTimeString() both return a datetime string WITHOUT the timezone or offset. Even though the snaplogic documentation says you can provide a ‘x’ or a ‘z’ in the ‘format’ parameter the result doesn’t contain any timestamp information for Date.parse() to understand. I even tried appending the timezone information to what is passed into the Date.parse() with no luck.
  
  This will result in a UTC Y-m-d 00:00:00 timestamp.
  
  I need a America/Los_Angeles Y-m-d 00:00:00 timestamp. If I used the above, I will be off by whatever the offset is in the America/Los_Angeles timezone.
Schevus
New Contributor III
5 years ago
I’m running into this problem as well. I need to convert a value obtained from toLocaleDateTimeString() back to a SnapLogic date object in its current timezone, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to maintain or set the timezone when parsing back to a date object. It always reverts to UTC as the timezone, though with the “correct” time from the original timezone. This is really unfortunate.

Does anyone know how to create a new date object (not derived from a datasource with a non-UTC timezone) that is not in UTC time?
gsuresh92
New Contributor
4 years ago
Date.parse(Date.now().toLocaleDateString({“timeZone”:“America/Los_Angeles”, “format”: “yyyy-MM-dd’T’00:00:00Z”})).getTime() ?