Date & Time Functions Reference

Convert, format, and manipulate timestamps and date ranges.

to_date

Return: Column

Converts a string column representation to DateType format.

Syntax signature:to_date(col, format=None)

Code snippet:

python

to_date(col('date_str'), 'yyyy-MM-dd')

Remember: Ensure format symbols match Java SimpleDateFormat conventions (e.g. MM is month, mm is minutes).

date_add

Return: Column

Returns the date after adding a specified number of days.

Syntax signature:date_add(col, days)

Code snippet:

python

date_add(col('date'), 10)

Remember: Use negative values to subtract days, or use date_sub() shortcut.

datediff

Return: Column

Returns the difference in days between two date columns.

Syntax signature:datediff(end, start)

Code snippet:

python

datediff(current_date(), col('join_date'))

Remember: Returns end - start. A positive value means end date is chronologically after start date.