PySpark SQL Date and Timestamp Functions

🔧 Setup First (Optional for Reference) from pyspark.sql import functions as F from pyspark.sql import types as T data = df = spark.createDataFrame(data, )…

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SQLDataDev Editorial Team

Mar 19, 2026 2 min read

🔧 Setup First (Optional for Reference)

from pyspark.sql import functions as F
from pyspark.sql import types as T

data = 
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, )
df = df.withColumn("input_date", to_date("input_date"))
df.show()

📆 Common Date & Timestamp Functions with Examples

Function	Description	Example	Output
`current_date()`	Returns current date	`df.select(current_date())`	`2025-04-08`
`current_timestamp()`	Returns current timestamp	`df.select(current_timestamp())`	`2025-04-08 14:32:10.123`
`date_format(col, fmt)`	Formats date as string	`date_format("input_date", "dd-MM-yyyy")`	`08-04-2024`
`to_date(col)`	Converts string to date	`to_date("2024-04-08")`	`2024-04-08`
`to_timestamp(col)`	Converts string to timestamp	`to_timestamp("2024-04-08 12:30:00")`	`2024-04-08 12:30:00`
`datediff(end, start)`	Difference in days	`datediff("2024-04-08", "2023-12-31")`	`99`
`months_between()`	Months difference (float)	`months_between("2024-04-08", "2023-12-08")`	`4.0`
`add_months(col, n)`	Add n months	`add_months("input_date", 2)`	`2024-06-08`
`date_add(col, n)`	Add n days	`date_add("input_date", 10)`	`2024-04-18`
`date_sub(col, n)`	Subtract n days	`date_sub("input_date", 10)`	`2024-03-29`
`next_day(col, day)`	Next specific weekday	`next_day("input_date", "Friday")`	`2024-04-12`
`last_day(col)`	Last day of month	`last_day("input_date")`	`2024-04-30`
`trunc(col, fmt)`	Truncates to month/year	`trunc("input_date", "MM")`	`2024-04-01`
`date_trunc(fmt, col)`	Truncates to level (year, month, day, etc.)	`date_trunc("month", "input_date")`	`2024-04-01 00:00:00`
`year(col)`	Extract year	`year("input_date")`	`2024`
`month(col)`	Extract month	`month("input_date")`	`4`
`dayofmonth(col)`	Extract day of month	`dayofmonth("input_date")`	`8`
`dayofweek(col)`	Extract day of week (1 = Sunday)	`dayofweek("input_date")`	`2`
`dayofyear(col)`	Extract day of year	`dayofyear("input_date")`	`99`
`weekofyear(col)`	Week number	`weekofyear("input_date")`	`15`
`quarter(col)`	Quarter of year (1-4)	`quarter("input_date")`	`2`
`hour(col)`	Extract hour from timestamp	`hour(current_timestamp())`	`14`
`minute(col)`	Extract minute	`minute(current_timestamp())`	`32`
`second(col)`	Extract second	`second(current_timestamp())`	`10`
`unix_timestamp()`	Returns current UNIX timestamp	`unix_timestamp()`	`Timestamp as long`
`from_unixtime(ts)`	Converts UNIX to timestamp	`from_unixtime(1680979200)`	`2023-04-09 00:00:00`

✅ Example Code

from pyspark.sql.functions import *

df.withColumn("formatted", date_format("input_date", "dd-MM-yyyy")) \
  .withColumn("year", year("input_date")) \
  .withColumn("month", month("input_date")) \
  .withColumn("add_10_days", date_add("input_date", 10)) \
  .withColumn("sub_10_days", date_sub("input_date", 10)) \
  .withColumn("next_friday", next_day("input_date", "Friday")) \
  .withColumn("last_day", last_day("input_date")) \
  .show()

💡 Tips

Always use to_date() or to_timestamp() before applying date functions if your column is string type.
Week starts from Sunday (1) when using dayofweek().
trunc() and date_trunc() behave differently: trunc() gives a date, date_trunc() gives a timestamp.
- Common Usage:
- trunc(date_column, 'MM') → first day of the month
- trunc(date_column, 'YYYY') → first day of the year
- date_trunc('month', timestamp_column) → beginning of the month 00:00:00
- date_trunc('hour', timestamp_column) → beginning of the hour

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