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toString

The toString function takes an expression as input and returns it as text.

Note:

If the expression is of type date-time, you can specify two optional arguments, dateTimeFormat and timeZone, additionally. The function will return a DATE-TIME expression in the specified dateTimeFormat, converted into the specified time zone.
If the expression is of type number (milliseconds), you can specify two optional arguments, dateTimeFormat and timeZone, additionally. The function will return a corresponding DATE-TIME expression in the specified dateTimeFormat, converted into the specified time zone. This is currently applicable to all Zoho services except Zoho Creator.
In services other than Zoho Creator, you can either input expression of DATE-TIME datatype or a TEXT in date-time format in order for the dateTimeFormat and timeZone parameters to take action. However, in Zoho Creator, the input should strictly be an expression of DATE-TIME datatype, inputting a TEXT value in date-time format will simply return the given value as-is.
In Zoho Creator, if the function fails to recognize the date-time value, it will simply return the given value in text format. In other services, an error message will be displayed.
We are working on unifying the differences in behavior between Zoho Creator and other services.

<variable> = <expression>.toString(<dateTimeFormat>, <timeZone>);

(OR)

<variable> = toString(<expression>, <dateTimeFormat>, <timeZone>);

(OR)

<variable> = <expression>.toText(<dateTimeFormat>, <timeZone>);

(OR)

<variable> = toText(<expression>, <dateTimeFormat>, <timeZone>);

where,

Parameter	Data type	Description
<variable>	TEXT	Variable which will contain the returned value.
<expression>	ALL DATA TYPES	The expression which will be returned in text format.
<dateTimeFormat> (optional)	TEXT	The format in which the date time value will be returned. Note: Applicable only when the given expression is of date-time or number data type. The number type is currently supported in all services except Zoho Creator. Within this param, you can only specify date-time literals which represent the respective components of a date or time value. Text can be quoted in single quotes to avoid interpretation. If any other value apart from date-time literals are specified without single quotes, the function will return null. If this param is not specified, the date-time value will be returned in a format specified in application settings.
<timeZone> (optional)	TEXT	Time zone in which the date-time value will be returned. Note: Applicable only when the given expression is of date-time data type. The number type is currently supported in all services except Zoho Creator. Value must be specified exactly as given in the TZ database name. If this param is not specified, the function will consider the time zone specified in application settings.

Letter	Date and Time Component
G	Era designator
y	Calendar year Examples: y - 2019 yy -19 yyy - 2019 dateValue = '29-Dec-2019'; info dateValue.toString("yyyy"); // returns 2019
Y	Week year Examples: Y - 2019 YY -19 YYY - 2019 dateValue = '29-Dec-2019'; info dateValue.toString("YYYY"); // returns 2020
M	Month in year Examples: M - 1 MM - 01 MMM - Jan MMMM - January
w	Week in year
W	Week in month
D	Day in year
d	Day in month
F	Day of week in month
E	Day name in week Examples: E - Tue EEEE - Tuesday
u	Day number of week
a	am/pm marker
H	Hour in day (0-23)
k	Hour in day (1-24)
K	Hour in am/pm (0-11)
h	Hour in am/pm (1-12)
m	Minute in hour
s	Second in minute
S	Millisecond
z	General time zone
Z	RFC time zone
X	ISO 8601 time zone

marks = 100;
info toString(marks); // Returns 100

dateValue = '01-Jan-2019 10:15:30';
info toString(dateValue, "MMM dd, yy 'at' hh:mm:ss, E", "Europe/Moscow"); 
// Returns Jan 01, 19 at 07:45:30, Fri

milliValue = 1596719471334;
info toString(milliValue, "MMM dd, yy 'at' hh:mm:ss, E", "Europe/Moscow"); 
// Returns Aug 06, 20 at 03:41:11, Thu