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Date/Time data type (Format property)

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Applies to: Access 2013 | Access 2016

You can set the Format property to predefined date and time formats or use custom formats for the Date/Time data type.

Settings

Predefined formats

The following table shows the predefined Format property settings for the Date/Time data type.

Setting Description
General Date (Default) If the value is a date only, no time is displayed; if the value is a time only, no date is displayed. This setting is a combination of the Short Date and Long Time settings.

Examples: 4/3/93, 05:34:00 PM, and 4/3/93 05:34:00 PM.
Long Date Same as the Long Date setting in the regional settings of Windows.

Example: Saturday, April 3, 1993.
Medium Date Example: 3-Apr-93.
Short Date Same as the Short Date setting in the regional settings of Windows.

Example: 4/3/93.

CAUTION: The Short Date setting assumes that dates between 1/1/00 and 12/31/29 are twenty-first century dates (that is, the years are assumed to be 2000 to 2029). Dates between 1/1/30 and 12/31/99 are assumed to be twentieth century dates (that is, the years are assumed to be 1930 to 1999).
Long Time Same as the setting on the Time tab in the regional settings of Windows.

Example: 5:34:23 PM.
Medium Time Example: 5:34 PM.
Short Time Example: 17:34.

Custom formats

You can create custom date and time formats by using the following symbols.

Symbol Description
: (colon) Time separator. Separators are set in the regional settings of Windows.
/ Date separator.
c Same as the General Date predefined format.
d Day of the month in one or two numeric digits, as needed (1 to 31).
dd Day of the month in two numeric digits (01 to 31).
ddd First three letters of the weekday (Sun to Sat).
dddd Full name of the weekday (Sunday to Saturday).
ddddd Same as the Short Date predefined format.
dddddd Same as the Long Date predefined format.
w Day of the week (1 to 7).
ww Week of the year (1 to 53).
m Month of the year in one or two numeric digits, as needed (1 to 12).
mm Month of the year in two numeric digits (01 to 12).
mmm First three letters of the month (Jan to Dec).
mmmm Full name of the month (January to December).
q Date displayed as the quarter of the year (1 to 4).
y Number of the day of the year (1 to 366).
yy Last two digits of the year (01 to 99).
yyyy Full year (0100 to 9999).
h Hour in one or two digits, as needed (0 to 23).
hh Hour in two digits (00 to 23).
n Minute in one or two digits, as needed (0 to 59).
nn Minute in two digits (00 to 59).
s Second in one or two digits, as needed (0 to 59).
ss Second in two digits (00 to 59).
ttttt Same as the Long Time predefined format.
AM/PM Twelve-hour clock with the uppercase letters "AM" or "PM" as appropriate.
am/pm Twelve-hour clock with the lowercase letters "am" or "pm" as appropriate.
A/P Twelve-hour clock with the uppercase letter "A" or "P" as appropriate.
a/p Twelve-hour clock with the lowercase letter "a" or "p" as appropriate.
AMPM Twelve-hour clock with the appropriate morning/afternoon designator as defined in the regional settings of Windows.

Custom formats are displayed according to the settings specified in the regional settings of Windows. Custom formats inconsistent with the settings specified in the regional settings of Windows are ignored.

Note

If you want to add a comma or other separator to a custom format, enclose the separator in quotation marks as follows: mmm d", "yyyy.

Example

The following are examples of custom date/time formats.

Setting Display
ddd", "mmm d", "yyyy Mon, Jun 2, 1997
mmmm dd", "yyyy June 02, 1997
"This is week number "ww This is week number 22
"Today is "dddd Today is Tuesday

You could use a custom format to display "A.D." before or "B.C." after a year depending on whether a positive or negative number is entered. To see this custom format work, create a new table field, set its data type to Number, and enter a format as follows:

"A.D. " #;# " B.C."

Positive numbers are displayed as years with an "A.D." before the year. Negative numbers are displayed as years with a "B.C." after the year.

See also

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