Date.Parse() Function

[SnapWizard]

I have an incoming file that has a date value of 00:00.00.000 as a value. I am trying to set it to null. Comparing the exit_date ==‘00:00:00.000’ fails. Checking Date.parse($exit_date)==’ ’ or Date.parse($exit_date==null fails. Date.parse($exit_date).ToLocalDateString() fails. Not sure how I can parse this data. Any ideas on how to map this value to null?

[mbowen]

The conditional operator (? : ) may help here. Is date field a string? If so, something
like this may work. You could replace “==” comparison with a string operation (.contains, .startsWith)

  MAPPER
      Expression  : $exit_date == '00:00.00.000' ? null : $exit_date
      Target Path : $exit_date

[del]

One thing I notice is that it seems there is a typo in the time-format for either the $exit_date value or the string-comparison expression.

I think "00:00.00.000" should be "00:00:00.000".
(i.e. the minute:second delimiter a colon instead of period)

Also, Date.Parse() should be Date.parse() (lowercase ‘p’)

In any case, if the $exit_date value contains the time-format typo, then Date.parse() probably returns a NaN value instead of null or '' (but I haven’t tested to confirm).

[SnapWizard]

Sorry, Yes I had typos in my question: Here’s some more detail:
I have a Mapper Snap with this logic:
$exit_date!=’ ’ && $exit_date!=null && $exit_date!=‘00:00:00.000’?
Date.parse($exit_date).toLocaleDateString() : null

I am getting this error message on that snap:
Expression worked for 1 previous document, but failed on document #2 with the error: Not-a-number

(NaN) does not have a method named: toLocaleDateString, found in: …aleDateString(). Perhaps you meant: toString, toExponential, toPrecision, toFixed

Resolution:
Handle the NaN value by providing a default value, for example: ($exit_date!=‘’&&$exit_date!=null&&$exit_date!=‘00:00:00.000’)?(Date.parse($exit_date) || /* default */).toLocaleDateString():null

Reason:
‘toLocaleDateString’ was not found while evaluating the sub-expression ‘Date.parse($exit_date).toLocaleDateString()’

I tried the resolution and the same error appears

[del · Accepted solution]

Try this expression in your mapper:

isNaN(Date.parse($.get('exit_date') || '')) ? null : Date.parse($exit_date).toLocaleDateTimeString()

Having not seen your entire input set, I can’t guarantee it will work for every record, but I think it will come very close, if not fully succeed.

The idea of this expression is:

If $exit_date exists and is translatable to dateobject, it will produce a datetime in which the LocaleDateTimeString() will result into a valid value; otherwise the result is null.

It is dependent on the expectation that NaN is always the result from Date.parse() for non-parsable parameters.