Article ID: 102045
Article Last Modified on 8/16/2005
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Visual Basic for MS-DOS
- Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Edition
This article was previously published under Q102045
SUMMARY
The FORMAT$ function uses the date separator as defined by the current country setting in MS-DOS. In the USA, that means it uses the dash or hyphen character (-) when printing dates instead of the forward slash '/'.
MORE INFORMATION
When printing date information, the FORMAT$ function replaces the slash '/' with the current country setting for the date separator. In the USA, the default MS-DOS date separator is the dash (-). Here's an example:
PRINT FORMAT$(NOW, "mm/dd/yy") ' prints 06-23-93
You can force FORMAT$ to use the slash (/) by preceding it with a backslash (\). Here's an example:
PRINT FORMAT$(NOW, "mm\/dd\/yy") ' prints 06/23/93
The Visual Basic for MS-DOS Help file topic 'Sample Date and Time Formats' shows the following example, which is incorrect for the USA:
FORMAT$ Expression Display ' Will Display
------------------ ------------- ' -------------
m/d/yy 12/7/58 ' 12-7-58
m/d/yy h:mm 12/7/58 20:50 ' 12-7-58 20:50
To display the expected date format, use the backslash (\) in conjunction with the forward slash (/). The backslash is an operator that displays the next character in a format string.
Additional query words: Vbmsdos kbVBp100
Keywords: kbdocfix KB102045
