date.mdx

title	label	order	desc	keywords
Date Field	Date	70	The Date field type stores a Date in the database. Learn how to use and customize the Date field, see examples and options.	date, fields, config, configuration, documentation, Content Management System, cms, headless, javascript, node, react, nextjs

The Date Field saves a Date in the database and provides the Admin Panel with a customizable time picker interface.

To add a Date Field, set the type to date in your Field Config:

import type { Field } from 'payload'

export const MyDateField: Field = {
  // ...
  type: 'date', // highlight-line
}

Config Options

Option	Description
name *	To be used as the property name when stored and retrieved from the database. More
label	Text used as a field label in the Admin Panel or an object with keys for each language.
index	Build an index for this field to produce faster queries. Set this field to true if your users will perform queries on this field's data often.
validate	Provide a custom validation function that will be executed on both the Admin Panel and the backend. More
saveToJWT	If this field is top-level and nested in a config supporting Authentication, include its data in the user JWT.
hooks	Provide Field Hooks to control logic for this field. More details.
access	Provide Field Access Control to denote what users can see and do with this field's data. More details.
hidden	Restrict this field's visibility from all APIs entirely. Will still be saved to the database, but will not appear in any API or the Admin Panel.
defaultValue	Provide data to be used for this field's default value. More
localized	Enable localization for this field. Requires localization to be enabled in the Base config.
required	Require this field to have a value.
admin	Admin-specific configuration. More details.
custom	Extension point for adding custom data (e.g. for plugins)
timezone *	Set to true to enable timezone selection on this field. More details.
typescriptSchema	Override field type generation with providing a JSON schema
virtual	Provide true to disable field in the database. See Virtual Fields

* An asterisk denotes that a property is required.

Admin Options

To customize the appearance and behavior of the Date Field in the Admin Panel, you can use the admin option:

import type { Field } from 'payload'

export const MyDateField: Field = {
  // ...
  admin: {
    // highlight-line
    // ...
  },
}

The Date Field inherits all of the default options from the base Field Admin Config, plus the following additional options:

Property	Description
placeholder	Placeholder text for the field.
date	Pass options to customize date field appearance.
date.displayFormat	Format date to be shown in field cell.
date.pickerAppearance *	Determines the appearance of the datepicker: dayAndTime timeOnly dayOnly monthOnly.
date.monthsToShow *	Number of months to display max is 2. Defaults to 1.
date.minDate *	Min date value to allow.
date.maxDate *	Max date value to allow.
date.minTime *	Min time value to allow.
date.maxTime *	Max date value to allow.
date.overrides *	Pass any valid props directly to the react-datepicker
date.timeIntervals *	Time intervals to display. Defaults to 30 minutes.
date.timeFormat *	Determines time format. Defaults to 'h:mm aa'.

* This property is passed directly to react-datepicker.

Display Format and Picker Appearance

These properties only affect how the date is displayed in the UI. The full date is always stored in the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.SSSZ (e.g. 1999-01-01T8:00:00.000+05:00).

displayFormat determines how the date is presented in the field cell, you can pass any valid unicode date format.

pickerAppearance sets the appearance of the react datepicker, the options available are dayAndTime, dayOnly, timeOnly, and monthOnly. By default, the datepicker will display dayOnly.

When only pickerAppearance is set, an equivalent format will be rendered in the date field cell. To overwrite this format, set displayFormat.

Example

collections/ExampleCollection.ts

import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'

export const ExampleCollection: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: 'example-collection',
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'dateOnly',
      type: 'date',
      admin: {
        date: {
          pickerAppearance: 'dayOnly',
          displayFormat: 'd MMM yyy',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      name: 'timeOnly',
      type: 'date',
      admin: {
        date: {
          pickerAppearance: 'timeOnly',
          displayFormat: 'h:mm:ss a',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      name: 'monthOnly',
      type: 'date',
      admin: {
        date: {
          pickerAppearance: 'monthOnly',
          displayFormat: 'MMMM yyyy',
        },
      },
    },
  ],
}

Custom Components

Field

Server Component

import type React from 'react'
import { DateTimeField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldServerComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldServer: DateFieldServerComponent = ({
  clientField,
  path,
  schemaPath,
  permissions,
}) => {
  return (
    <DateTimeField
      field={clientField}
      path={path}
      schemaPath={schemaPath}
      permissions={permissions}
    />
  )
}

Client Component

'use client'
import React from 'react'
import { DateTimeField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldClientComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldClient: DateFieldClientComponent = (props) => {
  return <DateTimeField {...props} />
}

Label

Server Component

import React from 'react'
import { FieldLabel } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldLabelServerComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldLabelServer: DateFieldLabelServerComponent = ({
  clientField,
  path,
}) => {
  return (
    <FieldLabel
      label={clientField?.label || clientField?.name}
      path={path}
      required={clientField?.required}
    />
  )
}

Client Component

'use client'
import React from 'react'
import { FieldLabel } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldLabelClientComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldLabelClient: DateFieldLabelClientComponent = ({
  field,
  path,
}) => {
  return (
    <FieldLabel
      label={field?.label || field?.name}
      path={path}
      required={field?.required}
    />
  )
}

Timezones

To enable timezone selection on a Date field, set the timezone property to true:

{
  name: 'date',
  type: 'date',
  timezone: true,
}

This will add a dropdown to the date picker that allows users to select a timezone. The selected timezone will be saved in the database along with the date in a new column named date_tz.

You can customise the available list of timezones in the global admin config.

**Good to know:** The date itself will be stored in UTC so it's up to you to handle the conversion to the user's timezone when displaying the date in your frontend.

Dates without a specific time are normalised to 12:00 in the selected timezone.