Adobe ColdFusion 8

TimeFormat

Description

Formats a time value using U.S. English time formatting conventions.

Returns

A custom-formatted time value. If no mask is specified, returns a time value using the hh:mm tt format. For international time formatting, see LSTimeFormat.

Category

Date and time functions, Display and formatting functions

Function syntax

TimeFormat(time [, mask ])

See also

CreateTime, Now, ParseDateTime, LSTimeFormat, DateFormat

History

ColdFusion MX 6.1: Added the mask character L or l to represent milliseconds.

ColdFusion MX:

  • Changed the way extra characters are processed: this function processes extra characters within the mask value differently than in earlier releases, as follows:
    • ColdFusion 5 and earlier: the function returns the time format and an apostrophe-delimited list of the extra characters. For example, TimeFormat(Now(), "hh:mm:ss dog") returns 8:17:23 d'o'g.
    • ColdFusion MX: the function returns the time format and the extra characters. For example, for the call above, it returns 8:17:23 dog.

    If the extra characters are single-quoted (for example, hh:mm:ss 'dog'), ColdFusion 5 and ColdFusion MX return the time format and the extra characters: 8:17:23 dog.

  1. Added support for the following mask parameter options: short, medium, long, and full.

Parameters

Parameter

Description
time

A date/time value or string to convert
mask

Masking characters that determine the format:

  • h: hours; no leading zero for single-digit hours (12-hour clock)
  • hh: hours; leading zero for single-digit hours (12-hour clock)
  • H: hours; no leading zero for single-digit hours (24-hour clock)
  • HH: hours; leading zero for single-digit hours (24-hour clock)
  • m: minutes; no leading zero for single-digit minutes
  • mm: minutes; a leading zero for single-digit minutes
  • s: seconds; no leading zero for single-digit seconds
  • ss: seconds; leading zero for single-digit seconds
  • l or L: milliseconds, with no leading zeros
  • t: one-character time marker string, such as A or P
  • tt: multiple-character time marker string, such as AM or PM
  • short: equivalent to h:mm tt
  • medium: equivalent to h:mm:ss tt
  • long: medium followed by three-letter time zone; as in, 2:34:55 PM EST
  • full: same as long

Usage

When passing a date/time value as a string, you must enclose it in quotation marks. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a number representation of a date/time object.

Database query results for date and time values can vary in sequence and formatting unless you use functions to format the results. To ensure that dates and times display with appropriate formatting, and that users of your ColdFusion application are not confused by dates and times displayed, Adobe recommends that you use the DateFormat and TimeFormat functions to format date and time values from queries. For more information and examples, see TechNote 22183, "ColdFusion Server (5 and 4.5.x) with Oracle: Formatting Date and Time Query Results," at www.coldfusion.com/Support/KnowledgeBase/SearchForm.cfm.

Example

<cfset todayDate = #Now()#>
<body>
<h3>TimeFormat Example</h3>
<p>Today's date is <cfoutput>#todayDate#</cfoutput>.
<p>Using Timeformat, we can display the value in different ways:
<cfoutput>
<ul>
    <li>#TimeFormat(todayDate)#
    <li>#TimeFormat(todayDate, "hh:mm:ss")#
    <li>#TimeFormat(todayDate, "hh:mm:sst")#
    <li>#TimeFormat(todayDate, "hh:mm:sstt")#
    <li>#TimeFormat(todayDate, "HH:mm:ss")#
</ul>
</cfoutput>    
<p>To generate a standard ISO 8601 W3C Date and Time string like 
1997-07-16T19:20, concatenate a DateFormat function, the character T, and a
TimeFormat function.
For example: dateformat(now(), "yyyy-mm-dd")#T#TimeFormat(now(), "HH:mm:ss")
produces:</p>
<cfoutput>#dateformat(now(), "yyyy-mm-dd")#T#TimeFormat(now(), "HH:mm:ss")#</cfoutput>
</body>