Monday, June 11, 2012
Standard Date Format Strings

A standard date and time format string uses a single format specifier to define the text representation of a date and time value. Any date and time format string that contains more than one character, including white space, is interpreted as a custom date and time format string. A standard or custom format string can be used in two ways:

  • To define the string that results from a formatting operation.

  • To define the text representation of a date and time value that can be converted to a DateTime value by a parsing operation.

Let’s change the Order Date on the Orders controller to display the long date pattern.

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, double-click on Orders / Fields / OrderDate field node.

OrderDate field on the Orders controller.

Change the Data Format String property:

Property Value
Data Format String D

Press OK to save the field. On the toolbar, press Browse.

Navigate to the Orders page. The Order Date values will be rendered in the long date pattern.

Order Date field values rendered in the long date pattern.

Below is a list of supported date format strings. The format string can be specified either directly or in curly braces. The data format string in the above sample can be written “D” or “{0:D}”.

Format String

Description

Example (Value = 6/15/2009 1:45:30 PM)

"d"

Short date pattern.

6/15/2009 (en-US)
15/06/2009 (fr-FR)
2009/06/15 (ja-JP)

"D"

Long date pattern.

Monday, June 15, 2009 (en-US)
15 июня 2009 г. (ru-RU)
Montag, 15. Juni 2009 (de-DE)

"g" General date/time pattern (short time). 6/15/2009 1:45 PM (en-US)
15/06/2009 13:45 (es-ES)
2009/6/15 13:45 (zh-CN)
"G" General date/time pattern (long time). 6/15/2009 1:45:30 PM (en-US)
15/06/2009 13:45:30 (es-ES)
2009/6/15 13:45:30 (zh-CN)

"t"

Short time pattern.

1:45 PM (en-US)
13:45 (hr-HR)
01:45 م (ar-EG)

"T"

Long time pattern.

1:45:30 PM (en-US)
13:45:30 (hr-HR)
01:45:30 م (ar-EG)

"f"

Full date/time pattern (short time).

Monday, June 15, 2009 1:45 PM (en-US)
den 15 juni 2009 13:45 (sv-SE)
Δευτέρα, 15 Ιουνίου 2009 1:45 μμ (el-GR)

"F"

Full date/time pattern (long time).

Monday, June 15, 2009 1:45:30 PM (en-US)
den 15 juni 2009 13:45:30 (sv-SE)
Δευτέρα, 15 Ιουνίου 2009 1:45:30 μμ (el-GR)

"M", "m"

Month/day pattern.

June 15 (en-US)
15. juni (da-DK)
15 Juni (id-ID)

"s"

Sortable date/time pattern.

2009-06-15T13:45:30

"Y", "y"

Year month pattern.

June, 2009 (en-US)
juni 2009 (da-DK)
Juni 2009 (id-ID)

"U", "u" Universal sortable date/time pattern. 2009-06-15 20:45:30Z