dir command ignoring 4-digit date switch

Question

In the command shell (cmd.exe), the following 3 commands give me identical results (2-digit year)

dir

dir /4

dir /-4

I recently got a new computer, but my old computer was also running Win 7 and the dir command gave me 4-digit year by default.

How can I force dir to to give me my 4-digit year back.  (I have some text parsing scripts that rely on 4 digits.)

Answer 1

Hi Hoss,

What is the format of the date settings on the right bottom of the screen?

It looks like the date is not set correctly on the computer. . Verify that your date format is set correctly.

a. Go to Start, Control Panel, “Clock, Language and Region”, then “Region and Language”.

b. Click the Formats tab, and then, in the Format list, select the locale to use for the display of the date.

You may change the format to MM/dd/yyyy in short date tab.

Also refer:

Change the display of dates, times, currency, and measurements

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-the-display-of-dates-times-currency-and-measurements

Once you have changed the format, you may check with the issue.

Hope this information helps. Reply with the status so that we could help you further.

Answer 2

Changing my short date format as you described fixed the problem.  I also tried some of the other formats to see if the DIR command always used that setting, and it looks like it does.

So in summary, the /4 switch on the DIR command does nothing--the date format is determined by the Short Date format setting in the Windows Control Panel.

Answer 3

Hi,

Glad to hear that the issue is resolved!

Your efforts to resolve this issue is very much appreciated.

Feel free to post your query here on Microsoft Community Forums, we will be more than happy to assist you.