Date and DateTime Format Strings

Format strings used to describe dates and date-times on the LabKey platform must be compatible with the format accepted by the Java class SimpleDateFormat. For more information see the java documentation. The following table has a partial guide to pattern symbols.

To control whether an internationally ambiguous date string such as 04/06/2014 should be interpreted as Day-Month-Year or Month-Day-Year, an admin can set the date parsing format at the site level.

Note that the LabKey date parser does not recognize time-only date strings. This means that you need to enter a full date string even when you wish to display time only. For example, you might enter a value of "2/2/09 4:00 PM" in order to display "04 PM" when using the format string "hh aa".

Format Shortcuts

At the field level, instead of providing a specific format string, you can use a shortcut value for commonly used formats. For details, see Date & Number Display Formats

Number Format Strings

Format strings for numbers must be compatible with the format that the java class DecimalFormat accepts. A valid DecimalFormat is a pattern specifying a prefix, numeric part, and suffix. For more information see the java documentation. The following table has an abbreviated guide to pattern symbols:

Examples

Java Reference Documents

Dates: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Numbers: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/text/DecimalFormat.html

Related Topics

Date & Number Display Formats