The Date and Time data type can be formatted in a locale-sensitive manner. You can choose one of several predefined Date and Time formats, or type in a custom format string.

 

The following table shows predefined format property settings for the Date and Time data type:

 

Setting

Locale

Description

General Date        

US (Default)

England

Example: 9/24/02 2:30:45 PM

Example: 9/24/02 2:30                              

Long Date    

US

Example: September 24, 2002

Medium Date      

US

Example: Sep 24, 2002

Short Date

US

Example: 9/24/02

Long Time

US

Example: 2:15:30 PM EDT

Medium Time    

US

Example: 2:15:30 PM

Short Time    

US

Example: 2:15 PM

 

To specify the time format, use a time pattern string. In this pattern, all ASCII letters are reserved as pattern letters, which are defined as the following:  

 

Letter

Date or Time

Examples

G

Era designator

AD

y

Year

1996; 96

M

Month in year

July; Jul; 07

w

Week in year

27

W

Week in month

2

D

Day in year

189

d

Day in month

10

F

Day of week in month

2

E

Day in week

Tuesday; Tue

a

Am/pm marker

PM

H

Hour in day (0-23)

0

k

Hour in day (1-24)

24

K

Hour in am/pm (0-11)

0

h

Hour in am/pm (1-12)

12

m

Minute in hour

30

s

Second in minute

55

S

Millisecond

978

z

Time zone

Pacific Standard Time; PST; GMT-08:00

Z

Time zone

-0800

 

The count of pattern letters determines the format.

 

(Text): 4 or more pattern letters = use full form, less than 4 pattern letters = use short or abbreviated form if one exists.

 

(Number): the minimum number of digits. Shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount. Year is handled specially; that is, if the count of 'y' is 2, the Year will be truncated to 2 digits.

 

(Text & Number): 3 or over, use text, otherwise use number. Any characters in the pattern that are not in the ranges of ['a'..'z'] and ['A'..'Z'] will be treated as quoted text. For instance, characters like ':', '.', '#', and '@' will appear in the resulting time text even if they are not embraced within single quotes.

Some examples using the US locale:

 

Date and Time Pattern

Result

yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' HH:mm:ss z

2001.07.04 AD at 12:08:56 PDT

EEE, MMM d, ''yy

Wed, Jul 4, '01

h:mm a

12:08 PM

hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz

12 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time

K:mm a, z

0:08 PM, PDT

yyyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa

02001.July.04 AD 12:08 PM

EEE, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z

Wed, 4 Jul 2001 12:08:56 -0700

yyMMddHHmmssZ

010704120856-0700

'Date Ordered: 'EEE, MMM dd, yy

Date Ordered: Fri, Oct 31, 03