DATEFORMAT

Description

Formats a date value using U.S. date formats. For international date support, use LSDateFormat.

Returns

A text string representing the date formatted according to the mask. If no mask is specified, returns the value in dd-mmm-yy format.

See also

Now, CreateDate, LSDateFormat, LSParseDateTime, LSTimeFormat, TimeFormat, ParseDateTime

History

ColdFusion MX: Added support for the following mask parameter options: short, medium, long, and full.

Parameters

Usage

When passing a date/time object as a string, you must enclose it in quotation marks. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a numeric representation of a date/time object.

Note:

You can pass the CreateDate function or Now function as the date parameter of this function; for example: #DateFormat(CreateDate(2001, 3, 3))#

Date and time values in database query results can vary in sequence and formatting unless you use functions to format them. To ensure that application users correctly understand displayed dates and times, Macromedia recommends that you use this function and the LSDateFormat, TimeFormat, and LSTimeFormat functions to format resultset values. For more information and examples, see TechNote 22183, "ColdFusion Server (5 and 4.5.x) with Oracle: Formatting Date and Time Query Results," on the Macromedia website at www.coldfusion.com/Support/KnowledgeBase/SearchForm.cfm.

Note:

The DateFormat function is best used for formatting output, not for formatting input. For formatting input, use one of the date/time creation functions (for example, CreateDate) instead.

Example

<cfset todayDate = Now()>
<body>
<h3>DateFormat Example</h3>
<p>Today's date is <cfoutput>#todayDate#</cfoutput>.
<p>Using DateFormat, we can display that date in different ways:
<cfoutput>
<ul>
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate)#
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "mmm-dd-yyyy")#
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "mmmm d, yyyy")#
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "mm/dd/yyyy")#
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "d-mmm-yyyy")#   
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "ddd, mmmm dd, yyyy")#   
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "short")#
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "medium")#
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "long")#
   <li>#DateFormat(todayDate, "full")#
</ul>
</cfoutput>

DATE

MASK