Extract Date

Description

The Extract Date command analyzes the input text to look for date and time values on it. A date and time value is any reference to it on a timeline, such as December 5, Dec 5, last week, next week, last month, or next month.

This command returns the date and time value with the yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format. Mapping returns the date according to the operating system's date and time format.

The results that this command returns might vary according to the selected NLP provider. For more information, see Setting an NLP provider.

Script syntax

IBM RPA's proprietary script language has a syntax similar to other programming languages. The script syntax defines the command's syntax in the script file. You can work with this syntax in IBM RPA Studio's Script mode.

extractDate --culture(Culture) --text(String) (List<DateTime>)=values (DateTime)=first (DataTable)=valuesmapping (Boolean)=success

Input parameter

The following table displays the list of input parameters available in this command. In the table, you can see the parameter name when working in IBM RPA Studio's Script mode and its Designer mode equivalent label.

Obsolete input parameter

The following table displays the obselete input parameters in this command. In the table, you can see the parameter name when working in IBM RPA Studio's Script mode and its Designer mode equivalent label, in which version it was deprecated, and the command's behavior on versions up to the version it was deprecated.

Output parameter

Example

Example 1: The Extract Date command assigns the input text to a variable, extracts the dates presented on the input text, and returns the list of values, the first value, and the values mapping.

defVar --name sentence --type String
defVar --name listExtractedValues --type List --innertype DateTime
defVar --name firstDateTime --type DateTime
defVar --name valuesMapping --type DataTable
defVar --name valueExtracted --type Boolean
// Assigns the input text to a variable.
setVar --name "${sentence}" --value "Order 1, created: 02/08/2023 \r\nOrder 2, created: 04/08/2023"
// Extracts the dates within the input text. 
extractDate --culture "en-US" --timezoneoffset 0 --text "${sentence}" listExtractedValues=values firstDateTime=first valuesMapping=valuesmapping valueExtracted=success
// Logs the extracted value.
logMessage --message "Check the output from the sentence used by this example:\r\n\r\nLisf of values: ${listExtractedValues}\r\nFirst value: ${firstDateTime}\r\nValues mapping: ${valuesMapping}\r\nValue extracted with success: ${valueExtracted}" --type "Info"
// List of values: [2023-02-08 00:00:00,2023-04-08 00:00:00]
// First value: 2023-02-08 00:00:00
// Values mapping: 1, 19, 10, 02/08/2023, 2/8/2023 12:00:00 AM
// 2, 50, 10, 04/08/2023, 4/8/2023 12:00:00 AM 

Example 2: The following code example demonstrates how to use the Extract Date command to analyze the input text. It looks for parts of text that corresponds to a date and time value, and as result it returns this value in a format for representing dates and time, like yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.

defVar --name sentence --type String
defVar --name listExtractedValues --type List --innertype DateTime
defVar --name firstDateTime --type DateTime
defVar --name valuesMapping --type DataTable
defVar --name valueExtracted --type Boolean
// Assigns the input text to the "${sentence}" variable.
setVar --name "${sentence}" --value "Finance automation got a kick-start in the 1990s, when MIT researchers developed the optical character recognition (OCR) technology for reading the handwritten parts of checks with high speed and accuracy. Today’s consumers have more options than ever for financial services, and they have high expectations for personalized services, fast processing times and responsive support."
// Extracts the dates within the input text. 
extractDate --culture "en-US" --text "${sentence}" firstDateTime=first valuesMapping=valuesmapping valueExtracted=success listExtractedValues=values
// Logs the extracted value.
logMessage --message "Check the output from the sentence used by this example:\r\n\r\nLisf of values: ${listExtractedValues}\r\nFirst value: ${firstDateTime}\r\nValues mapping: ${valuesMapping}\r\nValue extracted with success: ${valueExtracted}" --type "Info"
//  You can get an output in the following format:
//
// Lisf of values: [2022-05-10 15:58:15]
// First value: 2022-05-10 15:58:15
// Values mapping: 1, 206, 5, Today, 5/10/2022 6:58:15 PM
// Value extracted with success: True

Note: This example won't properly work with the Watson NLP provider due to the limitations of the command.

Limitations

When using the Watson NLP provider, the command will identify textual date expressions and return them as results, but will not convert them to Date Time values.

Related links

• Answer Question
• Boolean Extract
• Classify Text
• Extract Address
• Extract CNPJ
• Extract CPF
• Extract E-mail Address
• Extract Intent
• Extract Monetary Value
• Extract Named Entities
• Extract Numbers
• Extract Phone Number
• Extract Quantity
• Extract Time Span
• Parse Sentences
• Spell Checker
• Summarize Text
• Synonyms