ToDate function provides unexpected output - apache-pig

Question

I used the ToDate(userinput, format) function to covert my chararray field. I used the ToDate(userinput, 'MM/dd/yyyy') to covert the field from chararray to date but looks like i am not seeing the output as i had expected.
Here is the code:
l_dat = load 'textfile' using PigStorage('|') as (first:chararray,last:chararray,dob:chararray);
c_dat = foreach l_dat generate ToDate(dob,'MM/dd/yyyy') as mydate;
describe c_dat;
dump c_dat;
data looks like this:
(firstname1,lastname1,02/02/1967)
(John,deloy,05/26/1967)
(frank,fun,05/18/1967)
Output looks like this:
c_dat: {mydate: datetime}
(1967-05-26T00:00:00.000-04:00)
(1967-05-18T00:00:00.000-04:00)
(1967-02-02T00:00:00.000-05:00)
The output i was expecting was dateObjects with data as shown below:
(05/26/1967)
(05/18/1967)
(02/02/1967)
Please advise if i am doing anything wrong?

Answer 1

Ref : http://pig.apache.org/docs/r0.12.0/func.html#to-date, the return type of ToDate function is DateTime object. You can observe that in the schema description shared in output
c_dat: {mydate: datetime}
If you are having the date in the required format, you need not do any conversion.
c_dat = foreach l_dat generate dob as mydate;
If you are interested in converting the chararray date to any other format then you have to use ToString() function after getting the DateTime object.
Step 1: Convert date chararray to Date Time Ojbect using ToDate(datesstring, inutformat)
Step 2 : Use ToString(DateTime object, required format) to get the string date in the required format.
This can be achieved in a single step as below.
ToString(ToDate(date,inputformat),requiredformat);
Ref : http://pig.apache.org/docs/r0.12.0/func.html#to-string for details.