VB.NET ASP.NET String.Format DateTime Source Code Example

String.Format DateTime

Purpose: – Illustrates using in VB.NET ASP.NET.

Prerequistes:

  1. Install Visual Web Developer 2008
  2. Install SQL Server Express
  3. Download Northwind and Pubs Databases
  4. Attach Northwind Database to Databases in Sql Express
  5. Attach pubs Database to Databases in Sql Express

Notes:

  • You can build your own library of syntax examples by using same web site over and over and just add new web forms to it.

Instructions:

  1. Use Visual Web Developer 2008
  2. Create new web site;
    • Click File/New Web Site
    • Select ASP.NET Website Template
    • Select Visual Basic for Language
    • name of Web Site could be VBNET_ASPNET_Syntax.
  3. Add New folder named “LanguageBasics”
    • Right-click project name in solution explorer;
    • add new folder;
    • name of folder could be: LanguageBasics
  4. Add Web Form Named StringFormatDateTime to LanguageBasics folder
    • Right-click LanguageBasics folder;
    • add new item;
    • Select Web Form
    • Check place code behind in separate file
    • Web Form name could be StringFormatDateTime
  5. Click on copy code in code below to copy code into web form StringFormatDateTime.aspx
  6. Click on copy code in second set of code below to copy code into code-behind StringFormatDateTime.aspx.vb
  7. Right-click on StringFormatDateTime.aspx in solution explorer and select view in browser

Step 1: Click on Copy Code to Cut-n-paste code into StringFormatDateTime.aspx

< %@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="StringFormatDateTime.aspx.vb" Inherits="LanguageBasics_StringFormatDateTime" %>
 
< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Label"></asp:label>
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Step 2: Click on Copy Code to Cut-n-paste code into StringFormatDateTime.aspx.vb

 
Partial Class LanguageBasics_StringFormatDateTime
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
 
 
 
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
 
        '**************************************************
        '        Custom DateTime Formatting
        '**************************************************
        Dim sb As New StringBuilder
        sb.Append("Custom DateTime Formatting:<br />")
 
        'Here are custom format specifiers y (year), M (month), d (day), h (hour 12), H (hour 24), m (minute), s (second),
        ' f (second fraction), F (second fraction, trailing zeroes are trimmed), t (P.M or A.M) and z (time zone).
 
        'Following examples show how the format specifiers can be used.
        ' create date time 2009-12-21 20:04:08.101
        Dim dt As New DateTime(2009, 12, 20, 20, 4, 8, _
         101)
 
        ' Ways to format year: "9 09 009 2009"   year
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:y yy yyy yyyy}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' Ways to format month: "12 12 Dec December"  month
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:M MM MMM MMMM}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' Ways to format day: "21 21 Sun Sunday" day
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:d dd ddd dddd}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' Ways to format hour: "8 08 20 20"      hour 12/24
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:h hh H HH}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' Ways to format minute: "4 04"            minute
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:m mm}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' Ways to format second:  ' "8 08"            second 
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:s ss}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' Ways to format fraction of second: "1 10 101 1010"   sec.fraction
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:f ff fff ffff}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' Ways to format fraction of second: "1 1 101 101"   without zeros
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:F FF FFF FFFF}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' How to display am or pm: "P PM"            A.M. or P.M.
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:t tt}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' How to display timezone: "-6 -06 -06:00"   time zone
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:z zz zzz}", dt) + "<br />")
 
 
        '**************************************************
        '        Using date separator / (slash) and time sepatator : (colon).
        '**************************************************
        sb.Append("<br />")
        sb.Append("Using date separator / (slash) and time sepatator : (colon):<br />")
 
        'These characters will be rewritten to characters defined 
        'in the current DateTimeFormatInfo.DateSeparator and DateTimeFormatInfo.TimeSeparator.
 
 
        ' "20/12/09 20:04:08" - english (en-US)
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:d/M/yyyy HH:mm:ss}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "20.12.2009 20:04:08" - german (de-DE)
        ' date separator in german culture is "." (so "/" changes to ".")
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:d/M/yyyy HH:mm:ss}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        '**************************************************
        ' Here are some examples of custom date and time formatting:
        '**************************************************
        sb.Append("<br />")
        sb.Append("Here are some examples of custom date and time formatting:<br />")
 
        ' month/day numbers without/with leading zeroes
        ' "12/20/2009"
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:M/d/yyyy}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "12/20/2009"
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yyyy}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' day/month names
        ' "Sun, Dec 20, 2009"
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:ddd, MMM d, yyyy}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "Sunday, December 20, 2009"
        ' two/four digit year
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:dddd, MMMM d, yyyy}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "12/20/09"
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yy}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "12/20/2009"
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yyyy}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        '**************************************************
        '        Standard DateTime Formatting
        '**************************************************
        sb.Append("<br />")
        sb.Append("Standard DateTime Formatting:<br />")
        'In DateTimeFormatInfo there are defined standard patterns for the current culture. 
        'For example, property ShortTimePattern is string that contains value h:mm tt for en-US culture 
        'and value HH:mm for de-DE culture.
 
        'Following table shows patterns defined in DateTimeFormatInfo and their values for en-US culture. 
        'First column contains format specifiers for the String.Format method.
 
        'Specifier DateTimeFormatInfo property Pattern value (for en-US culture) 
        't ShortTimePattern h:mm tt 
        'd ShortDatePattern M/d/yyyy 
        'T LongTimePattern h:mm:ss tt 
        'D LongDatePattern dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy 
        'f (combination of D and t) dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy h:mm tt 
        'F FullDateTimePattern dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy h:mm:ss tt 
        'g (combination of d and t) M/d/yyyy h:mm tt 
        'G (combination of d and T) M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt 
        'm, M MonthDayPattern MMMM dd 
        'y, Y YearMonthPattern MMMM, yyyy 
        'r, R RFC1123Pattern ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT' (*) 
        's SortableDateTi­mePattern yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss (*) 
        'u UniversalSorta­bleDateTimePat­tern yyyy'-'MM'-'dd HH':'mm':'ss'Z' (*) 
        '    (*) = culture independent 
 
        'Following examples show usage of standard format specifiers in String.Format method and the resulting output.
 
        ' "8:04 PM"                         ShortTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:t}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "12/20/2009"                        ShortDate
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:d}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "8:04:08 PM"                      LongTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:T}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "Sunday, December 20, 2009"          LongDate
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:D}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "Sunday, December 20, 2009 8:04 PM"  LongDate+ShortTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:f}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "Sunday, December 20, 2009 8:04:08 PM" FullDateTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:F}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "12/20/2009 8:04 PM"                ShortDate+ShortTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:g}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "12/20/2009 8:04:08 PM"             ShortDate+LongTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:G}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "December 20"                        MonthDay
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:m}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "December, 2009"                     YearMonth
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:y}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:04:08 GMT"   
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:r}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "2009-12-20T20:04:08"             SortableDateTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:s}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        ' "2009-12-20 20:04:08Z"            UniversalSortableDateTime
        sb.Append(String.Format("{0:u}", dt) + "<br />")
 
        Label1.Text = sb.ToString
 
 
 
 
 
    End Sub
End Class

Step 3: Click on Copy Code to Cut-n-paste code into web.config right after the appSettings section

<connectionstrings>
    <add name="Northwind_ConnectionString"
      connectionString="Server=(local)\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI" />
    <add name="Pubs_ConnectionString"
      connectionString="Server=(local)\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=pubs;Integrated Security=SSPI" />
  </connectionstrings>