The custom date command requires a format string.This consists of one or more codes; the formatting codes are preceded by a percent sign (%). Characters that do not begin with % are used unchanged. The formatting codes are listed below:
| %a | Abbreviated weekday name |
| %A | Full weekday name |
| %b | Abbreviated month name |
| %B | Full month name |
| %d | Day of month as decimal number (01 - 31) |
| %m | Month as decimal number (01 - 12) |
| %y | Year without century, as decimal number (00 - 99) |
| %Y | Year with century, as decimal number |
| Less frequent formatting codes: | |
| %j | Day of year as decimal number (001 - 366) |
| %U | Week of year as decimal number, with Sunday as first day of week (00 - 53) |
| %w | Weekday as decimal number (0 - 6; Sunday is 0) |
| %W | Week of year as decimal number, with Monday as first day of week (00 - 53) |
| %% | Percent sign |
| Time formatting
codes. Note: The only database fields have valid time values are those in the Journal table. |
|
| %H | Hour in 24-hour format (00 – 23) |
| %I | Hour in 12-hour format (01 – 12) |
| %M | Minute as decimal number (00 – 59) |
| %p | AM / PM time indicator (this is determined by your operating system regional settings) |
The # flag may prefix any formatting code. In that case, the meaning of the format code is changed as follows.
| Format Code | Meaning |
| %#a, %#A, %#b, %#B, %#p, %#% | # flag is ignored. |
| %#d, %#H, %#I, %#j, %#m, %#M, %#U, %#w, %#W, %#y, %#Y | Remove leading zeros (if any). |
Examples:
Assuming that today is 09/06/03 (UK format)
CUSTOMDATE "%B %#d, %Y" would generate
"June 9, 2003"
CUSTOMDATE "%A, %d %b, %Y" would generate "Monday, 09 Jun,
2003"
CUSTOMDATE_FIELD "Last Given" "%B %y" would generate "June 03"
CUSTOMDATE_FIELD "JournalDateEdit" "%d %b %y %#I:%M %p" would
generate 09 Jun 03 4:23 PM
CUSTOMDATE_FIELD "JournalDateEdit" "%d %b %y %H:%I" would generate
09 Jun 03 16:23