Open topic with navigation

The Date data type formats your text as a date, consisting of one or more of the following attributes: a day of the week, a day of the month, a month, a year, and/or a time. Once you choose to format your text as a date, you can customize the appearance by specifying a locale and various formatting options.

To format your text as a date

On the Data Type tab, the following options are available for data sources formatted as dates:

• Locale: Specifies the language and country of the selected date format. In addition to all locales supported by Windows, the following options are available:

  • Use Windows Default: Sets the locale to the user's current Windows Regional and Languages setting. When using this setting, the date will be formatted differently depending on the system’s current language. If this is not desirable, select a specific locale setting.

  • Language Independent (Generic): Lists formats which are the same in every language. This includes several numeric formats for year, month, day, and time.

  • Language Independent (ISO 8601): Lists formats according to the ISO-8601 specification. These formats are language-independent.

• Calendar: For locales containing multiple calendars, specifies the calendar to use.

• Format: Lists the date formatting options available for the specified Locale. The Custom option enables you to specify a user-defined date format, using Custom Date and Time Format Strings.

• Pattern: Displays the selected date format. When Custom is selected, this option enables you to enter a user-defined format. For more information on available custom strings, refer to Custom Date and Time Format Strings.

• Time Zone: Specifies whether the date will be displayed in the local time zone or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC time, or Greenwich Mean Time, is an international time scale based on the local standard time on the 0 longitude meridian in Greenwich, England.