Date Masks

Date masks tell the driver how a date is stored in a text file. When a value is inserted into a text file, the date is formatted so that it matches the mask. When reading a text file, the driver converts the formatted date into a date data type.

Table 18-3 lists the symbols to use when specifying the date mask.

Table 18-3. Date Masks for Text Driver 

Symbol	Description
m	Output the month’s number (1–12).
mm	Output a leading zero if the month number is less than 10.
mmm, Mmm, MMM	Output the three-letter abbreviation for the month depending on the case of the Ms (for example, jan, Jan, JAN).
mmmm, Mmmm, MMMM	Output the name of the full month depending on the case of the Ms (for example, january, January, JANUARY).
d	Output the day number (1–31).
dd	Output a leading zero if the day number is less than 10.
ddd, Ddd, DDD	Output the three-letter day abbreviation depending on the case of the Ds (for example, mon, Mon, MON).
dddd, Dddd, DDDD	Output the name of the full day depending on the case of the Ds (for example, monday, Monday, MONDAY).
yy	Output the last two digits of the year.
yyyy	Output the full four digits of the year.
J	Output the Julian value for the date. The Julian value is the number of days since 4712 BC.
\ - .  :  , (space)	Special characters used to separate the parts of a date.
\	Output the next character. For example, if the mask is mm/dd/yyyy \A\D, the value appears as 10/01/2003 AD in the text file.
"string", 'string'	Output the string in the text file.

Table 18-4 shows some example date values, masks, and how the date appears in the text file.

Table 18-4. Date Mask Examples

Date	Mask	Value
2003-10-01	yyyy-mm-dd	2003-10-01
	m/d/yy	10/1/03
	Ddd, Mmm dd, yyyy	Fri, Oct 01, 2003