Question: I have got a project where I need to ingest an API feed here <http://am-twitter-scrape.herokuapp.com/users/Twitter?pages_limit=3&wait=0> 

**example date string: `2:21 PM - 19 Jul 2019`**

I need cut off the time and reformat the date like "Month Day, Year" (e.g. Jan 5, 2019).

I have tried to run the datePipe over the string variable like so:

```
<ng-container matColumnDef="date">
  <th mat-header-cell *matHeaderCellDef> Date </th>
  <!--<td mat-cell *matCellDef="let hashtags"> {{hashtags.date | date: 'longDate'}} </td>-->
  <td mat-cell *matCellDef="let hashtags"> {{hashtags.date}} </td>
</ng-container>

```

But it just turns up an error saying

> 
> InvalidPipeArgument: 'Unable to convert "2:21 PM - 19 Jul 2019" into a date' for pipe 'DatePipe'
> 
> 
> 

Which seems like the date is in a format incompatible with the included Angular toolkit to change the format.

What could be my possible options? Can I use Regex in Angular?

Answer: 
Yes, you can use regex in Angular. However, an easier solution could be using string operations.

In your template, you can use:

```
<td mat-cell *matCellDef="let hashtags"> {{convertDate(hashtags.date)}} </td>
</ng-container>

```

And then create the `convertDate` function in your component:

```
convertDate(rawDate: string): string {
  const dateOnly = rawDate.split('-')[1].trim();
  const [day, month, year] = dateOnly.split(' ');
  return `${month} ${day}, ${year}`;
}

```
```
let date = '2:21 PM - 19 Jul 2019';
let splitDate = date.split('-')[1];

```

Then you need to use `splitDate` in your pipe to format it, if it didn't work then wrap it with `new Date(splitDate)`