| Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0 for Microsoft Office - XPath Reference |  |
ms:format-date Function
Converts standard XSD date formats to characters suitable for output.
string ms:format-date(string datetime, string format [,locale])
Parameters
- string datetime
- contains a date-related value in XSD format. For nonstring arguments, this function behaves as if a
string()function were applied. If the argument is not a date, the output is an empty string. If it is a valid XSD date and some fields are emtpy, this function attempts to fill unspecified fields. - string format
- Contains a format string, according to Win32 API
GetDateFormatfunctions. - locale [optional]
- Defines the locale to format the data for (for example, "EN_us").
Remarks
The following lists the format characters for ms:format-date().
| Character(s) | Description |
|---|---|
| M | Months as 1-12 |
| MM | Months as 01-12 |
| MMM | Months as Jan-Dec |
| MMMM | Months as January-December |
| d | Days as 1-31 |
| dd | Days as 01-31 |
| ddd | Days as Sun-Sat |
| dddd | Days as Sunday-Saturday |
| y | Years as 0-99 |
| yy | Years as 00-99 |
| yyyy | Years as 1900-9999 |
| gg | Period/era (ignored if there isn't one) |
Note that this format does not allow time zones; does not allow the inclusion of abitrary text into the formatted string; does not allow centuries; does not allow suffixes like May 2nd or April 1st.
Example
XML Document (Sample.xml)
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<XMLSamples xml:space="preserve"
xmlns:dt="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:datatypes">
<FileDetails>
<Author>Robert Brown</Author>
<Date dt:dt="datetime">2000-02-16T15:56:00</Date>
</FileDetails>
</XMLSamples>
XSLT Style Sheet (Sample.xsl)
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:ms="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
xmlns:dt="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:datatypes">
<xsl:template match="/">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<xsl:for-each select="XMLSamples/FileDetails/Date">
<DIV>
Date Unedited:
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</DIV>
<DIV>
Date Edited:
<xsl:value-of select="ms:format-date(., 'MMM dd, yyyy')"/>
</DIV>
</xsl:for-each>
</BODY>
</HTML>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Output
The output HTML page shows the following entries:
Date Unedited: 2000-02-16T15:56:00 Date Edited: Feb 16, 2000