Formatting Dates

The Data dialog for date fields contains the following fields:

Use default values

Enable this to accept the default formatting values for the field. These are derived from the user preferences

Show Century

Enable this to output the year in full. For example, "1995" instead of "95"

Month name

Enable this to output the month name. For example, "Dec" instead of "12"

Year first

Enable this to output the year first. For example, "95 Dec 08"

Month first

Enable this to output the month first. For example, "Dec 08 95"

Day first

Enable this to output the day first. For example, "08 Dec 95"

Separator

Enable this to display dates with a separator character, then enter the desired character in the adjacent edit box. A hyphen is often used, for example, "25-Dec-95"

No spaces

Enable this to display dates without any separator, for example: "25Dec95" or "251295"

Validation

For non database date fields you can set up explicit validation ranges and a default value for the field (possibly used to initialise the edit feidl if the Clear First property is set). If you don't enable validation DP4 will use the null date as the default, and will allow any valid date.

Low High

For non-database fields, enter the earliest/latest dates permitted. DP4 uses these values to validate field entry

Database fields are always range-validated and defaulted using the data dictionary validation.

Default

For non-database fields, enter the date to offer as a default for field entry