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Strings.FormatDateTime(DateTime, DateFormat) Method

Definition

Namespace:
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly:
Microsoft.VisualBasic.Core.dll
Assembly:
Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
Source:
Strings.vb
Source:
Strings.vb
Source:
Strings.vb
Source:
Strings.vb

Returns a string expression representing a date/time value.

public static string FormatDateTime(DateTime Expression, Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateFormat NamedFormat = Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateFormat.GeneralDate);
static member FormatDateTime : DateTime * Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateFormat -> string
Public Function FormatDateTime (Expression As DateTime, Optional NamedFormat As DateFormat = Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateFormat.GeneralDate) As String

Parameters

Expression
DateTime

Required. Date expression to be formatted.

NamedFormat
DateFormat

Optional. Numeric value that indicates the date/time format used. If omitted, DateFormat.GeneralDate is used.

Returns

String

A string expression representing a date/time value.

Exceptions

ArgumentException

NamedFormat setting is not valid.

Examples

This example demonstrates the use of the FormatDateTime function.

' English (US) format.
Dim testDate As DateTime = #3/12/1999#

' FormatDateTime returns "Friday, March 12, 1999".
' The time information is neutral (00:00:00) and therefore suppressed.
Dim testString As String = FormatDateTime(testDate, DateFormat.LongDate)

Remarks

The Date data type always contains both date and time information. For purposes of type conversion, Visual Basic considers 1/1/1 (January 1 of the year 1) to be a neutral value for the date, and 00:00:00 (midnight) to be a neutral value for the time. If you format a Date value as a date/time string, FormatDateTime does not include neutral values in the resulting string. For example, if you convert #1/1/0001 9:30:00# to a string, the result is "9:30:00 AM"; the date information is suppressed. However, the date information is still present in the original Date value and can be recovered with functions such as DatePart.

Note

If you pass the Expression argument as a String literal, FormatDateTime interprets it according to the CurrentCulture setting of your application. However, if you pass it as a Date literal, use the format #mm/dd/yyyy#, because FormatDateTime always interprets a Date literal according to the English (US) culture. This is necessary because, if an application is developed and coded using Date literals from one culture, but is then executed on a platform with a different culture, the Date literals could be parsed incorrectly.

The NamedFormat argument has the following settings.

Constant Description
DateFormat.GeneralDate Display a date and/or time. Display a date part as a short date. If there is a time part, display it as a long time. If present, both parts display.
DateFormat.LongDate Display a date using the long date format specified in your computer's regional settings.
DateFormat.ShortDate Display a date using the short date format specified in your computer's regional settings.
DateFormat.LongTime Display a time using the time format specified in your computer's regional settings.
DateFormat.ShortTime Display a time using the 24-hour format (hh:mm).

Applies to

See also