---
title: "Using DATETIME_PARSE() Formula In Airtable | Airtable Support"
slug: "using-datetime-parse-formula"
description: "This article covers the DATETIME_PARSE() function—taking date & time information and interpreting it as structured values that Airtable can use to streamline your team's and organization's work."
tags: ["DATETIME_PARSE() formula"]
updated: 2025-11-07T19:14:35Z
published: 2025-11-07T19:14:35Z
canonical: "support.airtable.com/using-datetime-parse-formula"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.airtable.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Using the DATETIME_PARSE() formula in Airtable

| **Plan availability** | All plan types |
| --- | --- |
| **Permissions** | - **Owner** /**Creator** - Have access to all field configuration options. Additionally everything editors, commenters, or read-only users can do. - **Editor** - Can sort by, filter by, group by, or hide the field within a view. - **Commenter** / **Read-only** - Copy a field's URL |
| **Platform(s)** | Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app |

This article covers the DATETIME_PARSE() function—taking date & time information and interpreting it as structured values that Airtable can use to streamline your team's and organization's work.

> [!CAUTION]
> Note
> 
> If you are looking to format a date, then you’ll want to utilize the `DATETIME_FORMAT()` function. Learn more [here](/docs/formulas-and-date-fields) and [here](/docs/supported-format-specifiers-for-datetime-format).

## Using the DATETIME_PARSE() function in Airtable

Let’s say you have a single line text field that currently holds the following value: `9/19/2020 2:00pm` . Being a text field, this is simply a text string and can't be read by Airtable as a date. This means that it can't be used in the same ways that values in a date field can.

However, `DATETIME_PARSE()` can read this text string and convert it to a readable date using a formula like this:

`DATETIME_PARSE({Text}, 'M/D/YYYY')`

![360089623194ScreenShot2020-04-02at34254PM.jpg](https://cdn.airtable.document360.io/d0ee2ee4-3f78-47c7-b388-85e40be9fb89/Images/Documentation/360089623194ScreenShot2020-04-02at34254PM.jpg)

That said, Airtable cannot always understand date input formats. If you use a format that DATETIME_PARSE can't translate without some help, you can specify a format to match the format of your date text string so Airtable knows which parts are which.

To start, look at the available [format specifiers](/docs/supported-format-specifiers-for-datetime-format) and create a version of your date text string that's replaced with the appropriate format specifiers. For example, if your data is coming with this format - 4 Mar 2017 23:00 - you would use this specifier: `D MMM YYYY HH:mm`.

> [!CAUTION]
> Note
> 
> To learn more about supported DATETIME_DIFF() time units and specifiers, [check out DATETIME_DIFF unit article](/v1/docs/supported-unit-specifiers-for-datetime-diff).

## Using the locale function in Airtable

An optional function that can be used within `DATETIME_FORMAT` is the `SET_LOCALE` function. This takes a given date time input and returns that date time formatted to match a particular locale. If you need to parse a date first, then you would use:

`DATETIME_PARSE({Text field}, 'M/D/YYYY')`

An example formula structure using this function would look like:

`DATETIME_FORMAT(SET_LOCALE({Your DATETIME_PARSE formula field}, 'af'), 'LLLL')`

Or if you wanted to perform both of these functions within the same formula field, then it would look like this:

`DATETIME_FORMAT(SET_LOCALE(DATETIME_PARSE({Text field}, 'M/D/YYYY'), 'af'), 'LLLL')`

For more information, and examples, on using SET_LOCALE() [please see our support article here.](/docs/supported-locale-modifiers-for-set-locale)