# Utility methods

Sometimes you need to convert a Date Object into a formatted stream, for example to display a date on a grid or a detail form. Displaying a date without formatting will show the Javascript representation of a string, which is something like: Wed Jul 06 2016 09:47:04 GMT+0200 (CEST)

To convert this into a more readable string like Wednesday, 06 July 2016 09:47:04

The following utility function can be used

```javascript
var datestr = utils.convertDateToString(date_from_filter, 'dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss');
```

The format parameter is made up similarly to Java:

Letter Date or Time Component Presentation

## Example

\| | | G | Era designator | Text | AD | | y | Year | Year | 1996; 96 | | Y | Week year | Year | 2009; 09 | | M | Month in year | Month | July; Jul; 07 | | w | Week in year | Number | 27 | | W | Week in month | Number | 2 | | D | Day in year | Number | 189 | | d | Day in month | Number | 10 | | F | Day of week in month | Number | 2 | | E | Day name in week | Text | Tuesday; Tue | | u | Day number of week (1 = Monday, …, 7 = Sunday) | Number | 1 | | a | Am/pm marker | Text | PM | | H | Hour in day (0-23) | Number | 0 | | k | Hour in day (1-24) | Number | 24 | | K | Hour in am/pm (0-11) | Number | 0 | | h | Hour in am/pm (1-12) | Number | 12 | | m | Minute in hour | Number | 30 | | s | Second in minute | Number | 55 | | S | Millisecond | Number | 978 | | z | Time zone | General time zone | Pacific Standard Time; PST; GMT-08:00 | | Z | Time zone | RFC 822 time zone | -0800 | | X | Time zone | ISO 8601 time zone | -08; -0800; -08:00 |

Add a value to Date:

* newDate = utils.addDate(Long currentTimeMillis, String field, int amount)
* newDate = utils.addDate(String field, int amount): lo aggiunge alla data attuale
* newDate = utils.addDate(String date, String format, String field, int amount)
* newDate = utils.removeTime(java.util.Date date)
