Date format reference when sorting tasks with custom function

[alejsm]

Hello, is there a reference about how the date format in custom sorting works?

I use this line to sort my tasks by date created descending (tasks without creation date are sorted last)
sort by function reverse if (task.created == null) {return -1} else {return task.created.format("ymd")}

But if I use task.created.format("yyyy-mm-dd") The sorting doesn't seem to work.

[claremacrae]

Ah you’re right, it would be helpful for the customer-date-sorting docs to link to the custom format docs.

In the meantime you can find the link here:

https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Scripting/Task+Properties#Values+in+TasksDate+Properties

currently it’s bullet point 2.

[claremacrae]

Those docs show that what you meant as task.created.format("yyyy-mm-dd") can also be written as task.created.formatAsDate()

But if you really want to sort with that format, I would recommend using the built-in sort order instead, because it does more work to handle special cases like invalid dates:

https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Queries/Sorting#How+dates+are+sorted

[alejsm]

Hi Clare, thanks for your quick answer!

Using formatAsDate() solves my problem. The reason I'm using a custom sorting function is because I want to sort tasks with invalid dates after tasks with valid dates.

Regards,

Alejandro

[claremacrae]

Oh right.
FWIW I made them sort first so they were visible to fixed! So I expected them to always be transient things created by accident...