# Metadata
Platforms: desktop, server, mobile OS: mac, windows, linux, ios, android Introduced: 1.1 Security:
# Syntax
the [{ long | abbreviated | short }] [{ english | system }] dateFormat
# Examples
put the long dateFormat into stringToParse
# Description
Use the dateFormat function to obtain the general format of the date for further processing.
The dateFormat function returns a string containing one or more formatting incantations, each of which describes a part of the requested date format. The possible incantations are as follows:
%a Abbreviated weekday name: the abbreviated day of the week, as reported by the weekdayNames function
%A Full weekday name: the full day of the week, as reported by the weekdayNames function
%b Abbreviated month name: the abbreviated month name, as reported by the monthNames function
%B Full month name: the full month name, as reported by the monthNames function
%d Day of the month: the day of the month as a number
%m Month number: the number of the month
%y Two-digit year: the year as a two-digit number
%Y Four-digit year: This incantation indicates the year as a four-digit number (including the century)
%w Day of the week: A number between 1 and 7
>*Note:* The dateFormat differs from other date/time functionality in > that the default is to return information relative to the system > locale. i.e. the dateFormat is equivalent to the system dateFormat
# Tags
math,
# See
- **keyword:** string, long, english, short, system, abbreviated - **property:** useSystemDate - **command:** convert - **function:** monthNames, format, date, weekdayNames - **control structure:** function - **glossary:** return