Skip to main content Skip to complementary content

FormatDateTime

Creates a string from a DateTime value as specified by a pattern.

This function returns a String.

Arguments

Value Specify the value to format.

Properties

Pattern Enter the pattern to be used when parsing the value into a date/time. For example YYYY-MM-dd would parse 1960-09-11. See the list of permitted values for examples.

The count of pattern letters determine the format.

Text : If the number of pattern letters is 4 or more, the full form is used; otherwise a short or abbreviated form is used if available.

Number : The minimum number of digits. Shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount.

Year : Numeric presentation for year and weekyear fields are handled specially. For example, if the count of y is 2, the year will be displayed as the zero-based year of the century, which is two digits.

Month : 3 or over, use text, otherwise use number.

Zone : Z outputs offset without a colon, ZZ outputs the offset with a colon, ZZZ or more outputs the zone id.

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 spaces will appear in the resulting time text even if they are not surrounded by single quotes.

Permitted values

Symbol Description Format Example
G era text AD
C century of era (>=0) number 20
Y year of era (>=0) year 1996
x weekyear year 1996
w week of weekyear number 27
e day of week number 2
E day of week text Tuesday, Tue
y year year 1996
D day of year number 189
M month of year month July, Jul, 07
d day of month number 10
a halfday of day text PM
K hour of halfday (0-11) number 0
h clockhour of halfday (1-12) number 12
H hour of day (0-23) number 0
k clockhour of day (1-24) number 24
m minute of hour number 30
s second of minute number 55
S fraction of second number 978
z time zone text Pacific Standard Time, PST
Z time zone offset/id zone -0800, -08:00, America/Los_Angeles
' escape for text delimiter  
'' single quote literal '

Did this page help you?

If you find any issues with this page or its content – a typo, a missing step, or a technical error – please let us know!