• Date and DateTime Format Strings
• Number Format Strings
• Format Shortcuts
• Examples

Date and DateTime Format Strings

Format strings used to describe dates and date-times on the LabKey platform must be compatible with the format accepted by the Java class SimpleDateFormat. For more information see the Java documentation. The following table has a partial guide to pattern symbols.

To control whether an internationally ambiguous date string such as 04/06/2014 should be interpreted as Day-Month-Year or Month-Day-Year, an admin can set the date parsing format at the site level.

Note that the LabKey date parser does not recognize time-only date strings. This means that you need to enter a full date string even when you wish to display time only. For example, you might enter a value of "2/2/09 4:00 PM" in order to display "04 PM" when using the format string "hh aa".

Number Format Strings

Format strings for Number (Double) fields must be compatible with the format that the java class DecimalFormat accepts. A valid DecimalFormat is a pattern specifying a prefix, numeric part, and suffix. For more information see the Java documentation. The following table has an abbreviated guide to pattern symbols:

Format Shortcuts

At the field level, instead of providing a specific format string, you can use a shortcut value for commonly used formats. For details, see Date & Number Display Formats

Examples

The following examples apply to Number (Double) fields.

Java Reference Documents

Dates: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Numbers: https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/text/DecimalFormat.html

Related Topics

• Date & Number Display Formats