Setting parameters to format dates
These parameters are used to set the format of dates.
Symbol Meaning Presentation Example G era designator (Text) AD y year (Number) 1996 M month in year (Text and Number) July and 07 d day in month (Number) 10 h hour in am/pm (1-12) (Number) 12 H hour in day (0-23) (Number) 0 m minute in hour (Number) 30 s second in minute (Number) 55 S millisecond (Number) 978 E day in week (Text) Tuesday D day in year (Number) 189 F day of week in month (Number) 2 (2nd Wed in July) w week in year (Number) 27 W week in month (Number) 2 a am/pm marker (Text) PM k hour in day (1-24) (Number) 24 K hour in am/pm (0-11) (Number) 0 z time zone (Text) Pacific Standard Time ' escape for text (Delimiter) '' single quote (Literal) The number of letters determines format:
- Text
- Four or more pattern letters, use full form.
- Less than four, use short or abbreviated form if one exists.
- Example: Day/Month/Year
- d,M,y = 3,3,3.
- dd,MM,yy = 03,03,03.
- dd,MMM,yy = 03,Mar,03.
- dd,MMMM,yyyy = 03,March,2003.
Lowercase and uppercase:
- The case of letters used in date and time code is not consistent. For example, "M" for month but "d" for day and "y" for year.
- Uppercase and lowercase letters can mean different things. For example, "s" for second and "S" for millisecond.
Incorrect format:
If a date or time code is entered incorrectly, nothing is returned.
Other characters:
Any characters in the pattern that are not in the ranges of ['a'..'z'] and ['A'..'Z'] is treated as quoted text. For example, characters like ':', '.', ' ', '#' and '@' appear in the resulting time text even if they are not embraced within single quotes.
Examples Using the US locale:
Format Pattern Result "yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' hh:mm:ss z" 1996.07.10 AD at 15:08:56 PDT "EEE, MMM d, ''yy" Wed, July 10, '96 "h:mm a" 12:08 PM "hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz" 12 o'clock PM, Pacific Standard Time "K:mm a, z" 0:00 PM, PST "yyyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa" 1996.July.10 AD 12:08 PM
Parent: Elements