xHarbour Reference Documentation > Command Reference

SET DATE

Specifies the date format for input and display.

Syntax

SET DATE FORMAT [TO] <cDateFormat>

or

SET DATE [TO] AMERICAN |
                  ansi |
               British |
                French |
                German |
               Italian |
                 Japan |
                   usa

Arguments

TO <cDateFormat>

<cDateFormat> is a character expression specifying which type of date format will be used. The value of <cDateFormat> must be a string of up to 12 characters.

If specified, <cDateFormat> determines the format (placement and number of digits) of the day, month and year. Position of day, month and year digits is defined by the number of occurrences of the letters d, m and y. Any other characters are displayed in the date values.

If FORMAT is omitted, one of the following keywords can be used to specify the desired date format.

Keywords for SET DATE

Keyword	Date format
AMERICAN	mm/dd/yy
ANSI	yy.mm.dd
BRITISH	dd/mm/yy
FRENCH	dd/mm/yy
GERMAN	dd.mm.yy
ITALIAN	dd-mm-yy
JAPAN	yy/mm/dd
USA	mm-dd-yy

Description

The SET DATE command specifies the format for the display and input of date values. It is a global setting valid for an entire xHarbour application.

Info

See also:	CtoD(), Date(), DtoC(), DtoS(), Set(), SET CENTURY, SET EPOCH
Category:	SET commands
Source:	rtl\set.c
LIB:	xhb.lib
DLL:	xhbdll.dll

Example

// In this example the FORMAT clause directly specifies the date format

   PROCEDURE Main
      ? Set( _SET_DATEFORMAT )         // result: mm/dd/yy
      ? Date()                         // result: 12/21/05

      SET DATE FORMAT TO "yy:mm:dd"

      ? Date()                         // result: 05:12:21
   RETURN