---
title: "toDate"
description: "Tries to coerce value into a Date."
---

# toDate

> Tries to coerce value into a Date.

**This function is used by Ignition's Expression language**.

## Description
Tries to coerce value into a date. If value is a number or a string that represents a number, the number is treated as the number of milliseconds since the epoch, January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT. If value is a string, it is parsed to see if it represents a date in one of the supported formats:

* yyyy-MM-dd
* MM/dd/yyyy
* MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss
* hh:mm:ss a
* hh:mm a
* MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss a
* yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS
* yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
* EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy
* yyyyMMdd.HHmmssSSSZ

If not, type casting fails.The failover value must be a number or string with the same restrictions.

## Syntax
`toDate(value, [failover])`

### Parameters

| Type | Parameter | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Object | `value` | The value to type cast into a date. |
| Object | `failover` | The failover value if type casting fails. [optional] |

### Results
**Date** - The value type cast as a date.

## Examples
```python title="Code Snippet"
toDate("2007-04-12 16:28:22") //returns April 12th, 2007, 4:28:22 PM
```