How to Format Dates in BigQuery

Last updated July 26, 2026 · By the SaturnSQL team

FORMAT_DATE converts a DATE into a display string using strftime-style codes, and PARSE_DATE does the reverse, turning a string into a DATE.

SELECT FORMAT_DATE('%Y-%m-%d', CURRENT_DATE()) AS iso_date,
       FORMAT_DATE('%B %d, %Y', CURRENT_DATE()) AS long_date;

Parsing strings into dates

SELECT PARSE_DATE('%m/%d/%Y', '07/26/2026') AS parsed_date;

For timestamps, use FORMAT_TIMESTAMP and PARSE_TIMESTAMP instead; both take an extra optional timezone argument.

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