User Guide Cancel

DateFormat

Last updated on May 30, 2024 | Also applies to ColdFusion

ColdFusion

Open app

CFML Reference User Guide
ColdFusion functions
ColdFusion Tags
1. ColdFusion tag summary
2. ColdFusion tags by category
  1. Application framework tags
    1. cfapplication
    2. cfassociate
    3. cferror
    4. cfimport
    5. cfinterface
    6. cflock
    7. cfscript
    8. cfthread
  2. Communications tags
  3. Database manipulation tags
  4. Data output tags
    1. cfchart
    2. cfchartdata
    3. cfchartseries
    4. cfcol
    5. cfcontent
    6. cfdocument
    7. cfdocumentitem
    8. cfdocumentsection
    9. cfflush
    10. cfheader
    11. cflog
    12. cfoutput
    13. cfpresentation
    14. cfpresentationslide
    15. cfpresenter
    16. cfprocessingdirective
    17. cfprint
    18. cfreport
    19. cfreportparam
    20. cfsilent
    21. cftable
  5. Debugging tags
    1. cfdump
    2. cftimer
    3. cftrace
  6. Exception handling tags
    1. cfcatch
    2. cferror
    3. cffinally
    4. cfrethrow
    5. cfthrow
    6. cftry
  7. Extensibility tags
    1. cfchart
    2. cfchartdata
    3. cfchartseries
    4. cfcollection
    5. cfcomponent
    6. cfexecute
    7. cfftp
    8. function
    9. cfindex
    10. cfinterface
    11. cfinvoke
    12. cfinvokeargument
    13. cfobject
    14. cfproperty
    15. cfreport
    16. cfreportparam
    17. cfreturn
    18. cfsearch
    19. cfsharepoint
    20. cfspreadsheet
    21. cfwddx
    22. cfxml
  8. File management tags
    1. cfdirectory
    2. cffile
    3. cffileupload
    4. cfftp
    5. cfzip
    6. cfzipparam
  9. Flow-control tags
    1. cfabort
    2. cfbreak
    3. cfcase
    4. cfcontinue
    5. cfdefaultcase
    6. cfelse
    7. cfelseif
    8. cfexecute
    9. cfexit
    10. cfif
    11. cfinclude
    12. cflocation
    13. cfloop
    14. cfrethrow
    15. cfswitch
    16. cfthrow
    17. cftry
  10. Forms tags
    1. cfapplet
    2. cfcalendar
    3. cffileupload
    4. cfform
    5. cfformgroup
    6. cfformitem
    7. cfgrid
    8. cfgridcolumn
    9. cfgridrow
    10. cfgridupdate
    11. cfinput
    12. cfpdf
    13. cfpdfform
    14. cfpdfformparam
    15. cfpdfparam
    16. cfpdfsubform
    17. cfselect
    18. cfslider
    19. cftextarea
    20. cftree
    21. cftreeitem
  11. Internet Protocol tags
    1. cfajaximport
    2. cfajaxproxy
    3. cfftp
    4. cffeed
    5. cfimap
    6. cfhttp
    7. cfhttpparam
    8. cfldap
    9. cfmail
    10. cfmailparam
    11. cfmailpart
    12. cfpop
    13. cfsprydataset
  12. Page processing tags
    1. cfcache
    2. cfcontent
    3. cfflush
    4. cfheader
    5. cfhtmlhead
    6. cfinclude
    7. cfprocessingdirective
    8. cfsetting
    9. cfsilent
  13. Security tags
  14. Variable manipulation tags
    1. cfcookie
    2. cfdump
    3. cfparam
    4. cfregistry
    5. cfsavecontent
    6. cfschedule
    7. cfset
    8. cfsetting
  15. Other tags
    1. cfimage
    2. cflog
    3. cfregistry
3. Tags a-b
4. Tags c
  1. cfcache
  2. cfcalendar
  3. cfcase
  4. cfcatch
  5. cfchart
  6. cfchartdata
  7. cfchartseries
  8. cfclient
  9. cfclientsettings
  10. cfcol
  11. cfcollection
  12. cfcomponent
  13. cfcontent
  14. cfcontinue
  15. cfcookie
  16. Tags d-e
5. Tags f
6. Tags g-h
  1. cfgraph
  2. cfgraphdata
  3. cfgrid
  4. cfgridcolumn
  5. cfgridrow
  6. cfgridupdate
  7. cfheader
  8. cfhtmlhead
  9. cfhtmltopdf
  10. cfhtmltopdfitem
  11. cfhttp
  12. cfhttpparam
7. Tags i
  1. cfif
  2. cfimage
  3. cfimap
  4. cfimapfilter
  5. cfimpersonate
  6. cfimport
  7. cfinclude
  8. cfindex
  9. cfinput
  10. cfinsert
  11. cfinterface
  12. cfinvoke
  13. cfinvokeargument
8. Tags j-l
9. Tags m-o
10. Tags p-q
  1. cfparam
  2. cfpdf
  3. cfpdfform
  4. cfpdfformparam
  5. cfpdfparam
  6. cfpdfsubform
  7. cfpod
  8. cfpop
  9. cfpresentation
  10. cfpresentationslide
  11. cfpresenter
  12. cfprint
  13. cfprocessingdirective
  14. cfprocparam
  15. cfprocresult
  16. cfprogressbar
  17. cfproperty
  18. cfquery
  19. cfqueryparam
11. Tags r-s
  1. cfregistry
  2. cfreport
  3. cfreportparam
  4. cfrethrow
  5. cfreturn
  6. cfsavecontent
  7. cfschedule
  8. cfscript
  9. cfsearch
  10. cfselect
  11. cfservlet
  12. cfservletparam
  13. cfset
  14. cfsetting
  15. cfsharepoint
  16. cfsilent
  17. cfslider
  18. cfspreadsheet
  19. cfsprydataset
  20. cfstoredproc
  21. cfswitch
12. Tags t
  1. cftable
  2. cftextarea
  3. cftextinput
  4. cfthread
  5. cfthrow
  6. cftimer
  7. cftooltip
  8. cftrace
  9. cftransaction
  10. cftree
  11. cftreeitem
  12. cftry
13. Tags u-z
  1. cfupdate
  2. cfwddx
  3. cfwebsocket
  4. cfwindow
  5. cfxml
  6. cfzip
  7. cfzipparam
CFML Reference
1. Reserved words and variables
2. Ajax JavaScript functions
3. ColdFusion ActionScript functions
4. ColdFusion mobile functions
5. Application.cfc reference
6. Script functions implemented as CFCs
7. ColdFusion Flash Form style reference
8. ColdFusion event gateway reference
9. ColdFusion C++ CFX Reference
10. ColdFusion Java CFX reference
11. WDDX JavaScript Objects
Cloud services

Description

Formats a date value using U.S. date formats. For international date support, use LSDateFormat.

Returns

A text string representing the date formatted according to the mask. If no mask is specified, returns the value in dd-mmm-yy format.

Function syntax

DateFormat(date [, mask])

History

ColdFusion (2021 release) Update 1: We've fixed the issue with mask in the function. For more information, see the bug. We recommend updating to Update 1.

ColdFusion (2021 release): Added a JVM flag -Dcoldfusion.datemask.useDasdayofmonth. It defaults to false but when set to true and the mask contains D (uppercase D), the mask treats the value as d (lowercase d), day of the month. Hence, dateformat(now(), "mm-D-yyyy") is the same as dateformat(now(), "mm-d-yyyy") when flag is set to true. By default Capital D is used to specify Day of the year. See example below.

ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 3. ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 10, and ColdFusion 11 Update 18: Input formats "m/d" or "d/m", where masks m as month and d as date with valid month/day numerals are no more considered as valid date input. For example, see Example 2.

ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 3: Contains the following changes:

You can use both lowercase and uppercase letters as mask characters.
The following masks are added:
- e/E: Day in a week.
- f/F: Day of a week in a month.
- k/K: Hour in a day (1-24).
- w: Week of the year as digit .
- ww : Week of the year as digits. Leading zero for single-digit week.

ColdFusion MX: Added support for the following mask parameter options: short, medium, long, and full.

Parameters

Parameter	Description
date	Date/time object, in the range 100 AD-9999 AD.
mask	Characters that show how ColdFusion displays a date: d: Day of the month as digits; no leading zero for single-digit days. dd: Day of the month as digits; leading zero for single-digit days. ddd : Day of the week as a three-letter abbreviation. dddd : Day of the week as its full name. eee /EEE: Day of the week as a three-letter abbreviation. eeee /EEEE: Day of the week as its full name. f/F: Day of a week in a month. m: Month as digits; no leading zero for single-digit months. mm: Month as digits; leading zero for single-digit months. mmm: Month as a three-letter abbreviation. mmmm: Month as its full name. M: Month in year . D: Day in year . k/K: Hour in a day. w: Week of the year as digit . ww : Week of the year as digits. Leading zero for single-digit week. W: Week of the month as digit . WW: Week of the month as digits. Leading zero for single-digit week. Y: Week year. YY: Week year as last two digits; leading zero for years less than 10. yy : Year as last two digits; leading zero for years less than 10. yyyy /YYYY: Year represented by four digits. gg: Period/era string. Ignored. Reserved. The following masks tell how to format the full date and cannot be combined with other masks: short: equivalent to m/d/y medium: equivalent to mmm d, yyyy long: equivalent to mmmm d, yyyy full: equivalent to dddd , mmmm d, yyyy z: Time zone in literal format, for example, IST Z: Time zone in hours of offset (RFC 822 TimeZone), for example, +0530 X: Time zone in hours of offset in ISO 8601 format. The following are the three ways of using 'X': X: +05 XX: +0530 XXX: +5:30

Parameter

Description

date

Date/time object, in the range 100 AD-9999 AD.

mask

Characters that show how ColdFusion displays a date:

d: Day of the month as digits; no leading zero for single-digit days.
dd: Day of the month as digits; leading zero for single-digit days.
ddd : Day of the week as a three-letter abbreviation.
dddd : Day of the week as its full name.
eee /EEE: Day of the week as a three-letter abbreviation.
eeee /EEEE: Day of the week as its full name.
f/F: Day of a week in a month.
m: Month as digits; no leading zero for single-digit months.
mm: Month as digits; leading zero for single-digit months.
mmm: Month as a three-letter abbreviation.
mmmm: Month as its full name.
M: Month in year .
D: Day in year .
k/K: Hour in a day.
w: Week of the year as digit .
ww : Week of the year as digits. Leading zero for single-digit week.
W: Week of the month as digit .
WW: Week of the month as digits. Leading zero for single-digit week.
Y: Week year.
YY: Week year as last two digits; leading zero for years less than 10.
yy : Year as last two digits; leading zero for years less than 10.
yyyy /YYYY: Year represented by four digits.
gg: Period/era string. Ignored. Reserved. The following masks tell how to format the full date and cannot be combined with other masks:
short: equivalent to m/d/y
medium: equivalent to mmm d, yyyy
long: equivalent to mmmm d, yyyy
full: equivalent to dddd , mmmm d, yyyy
z: Time zone in literal format, for example, IST
Z: Time zone in hours of offset (RFC 822 TimeZone), for example, +0530
X: Time zone in hours of offset in ISO 8601 format. The following are the three ways of using 'X':
- X: +05
- XX: +0530
- XXX: +5:30

Usage

When passing a date/time object as a string, enclose it in quotation marks. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a numeric representation of a date/time object.

Date and time values in database query results can vary in sequence and formatting unless you use functions to format them. To ensure that application users correctly understand displayed dates and times, Adobe recommends that you use this function and the LSDateFormat and LSTimeFormat functions to format resultset values.

The DateFormat function is best used for formatting output, not for formatting input. For formatting input, use one of the date/time creation functions (for example, CreateDate) instead.

Example 1

<cfscript>
    Date1 = "{ts '2018-11-15 12:13:50'}";
    dateformat= DateFormat(Date1)
    dateformat1= DateFormat(Date1,"e")
    dateformat2= DateFormat(Date1,"f")
    dateformat3= DateFormat(Date1,"k")
    dateformat4= DateFormat(Date1,"w")
    dateformat5= DateFormat(Date1,"ww")
    writeOutput("date is : " & dateformat & "<br/>")
    writeOutput("day in a week is : " & dateformat1 & "<br/>")
    writeOutput("day of a week in a month : " & dateformat2 & "<br/>")
    writeOutput("hour in a day: " & dateformat3 & "<br/>")
    writeOutput("week of the year as a digit: " & dateformat4 & "<br/>")
    writeOutput("Week of the year as digits. Leading zero for single-digit week. : " & dateformat5 & "<br/>")
</cfscript>

Output

date is : 15-Nov-18
day in a week is : Thu
day of a week in a month : 3
hour in a day: 12
week of the year as a digit: 46
Week of the year as digits. Leading zero for single-digit week. : 46

Example 2

<cfscript> 
 writeOutput("The date is: " & DateFormat('04/10/2019','mm-dd')) 
</cfscript>

The code above runs as expected and produces the following output:

The date is: 04-10

However, the code below throws an exception since the input date is in an incorrect format.

<cfscript> 
 // This snippet throws an exception 
 writeOutput("The date is: " & DateFormat('04/10','mm-dd')) 
</cfscript>

coldfusion.datemask.useDasdayofmonth

If you set the above flag as D, the snippet below produces the same output when the mask is set to d.

<cfscript> 
    writeOutput(dateformat(now(), "mm-D-yyyy") & "<br/>") 
    writeOutput(dateformat(now(), "mm-d-yyyy") & "<br/>") 
</cfscript>

Adobe

Get help faster and easier

New user?

DateFormat

Description

Returns

Category

Function syntax

See also

History

Parameters

Usage

Example 1

Get help faster and easier

Ask the Community

Contact Us