Article ID: 168793
Article Last Modified on 1/19/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 32-Bit Enterprise Edition
- Microsoft Access 95 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Access 97 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q168793
SUMMARY
This article presents a step-by-step example on how to programmatically change the short date format of the system's Regional Settings. Otherwise the short date format can be manually changed through the Regional Settings applet in Control Panel.
MORE INFORMATION
Step-by-Step Example
- In a new or existing project, add a form (Form1).
- Add a CommandButton (Command1) to the form.
Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:
Option Explicit Private Const LOCALE_SSHORTDATE = &H1F Private Const WM_SETTINGCHANGE = &H1A 'same as the old WM_WININICHANGE Private Const HWND_BROADCAST = &HFFFF& Private Declare Function SetLocaleInfo Lib "kernel32" Alias _ "SetLocaleInfoA" (ByVal Locale As Long, ByVal LCType As _ Long, ByVal lpLCData As String) As Boolean Private Declare Function PostMessage Lib "user32" Alias _ "PostMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, _ ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long Private Declare Function GetSystemDefaultLCID Lib "kernel32" _ () As Long
Place the following code in Command1_Click event procedure:
P Private Sub Command1_Click() Dim dwLCID As Long dwLCID = GetSystemDefaultLCID() If SetLocaleInfo(dwLCID, LOCALE_SSHORTDATE, "dd-MMM-yy") _ = False Then MsgBox "Failed" Exit Sub End If PostMessage HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0, 0 End Sub
- Run the program and open the form. Click on Command1 and then exit the program.
- Go to Control Panel and double-click on the Regional Settings icon. Select the Date tab. Note that the Short date style has been changed to "dd-MMM-yy."
Keywords: kb32bitonly kbhowto kbprogramming KB168793