Re: Date format detection

Andy wrote:

> I can't find the definition for getdateformat. How do I use it?
> Thanks and sorry for the ignorance.

Its a windows API

The GetDateFormat function formats a date as a date string for a
specified locale. The function formats either a specified date or the
local system date.

int GetDateFormat(
LCID Locale, // locale
DWORD dwFlags, // options
CONST SYSTEMTIME *lpDate, // date
LPCTSTR lpFormat, // date format
LPTSTR lpDateStr, // formatted string buffer
int cchDate // size of buffer
);
Parameters
Locale
[in] Specifies the locale for which the date string is to be formatted.
If lpFormat is NULL, the function formats the string according to the
date format for this locale. If lpFormat is not NULL, the function uses
the locale only for information not specified in the format picture
string (for example, the locale's day and month names).
This parameter can be a locale identifier created by the MAKELCID
macro, or one of the following predefined values. Value Meaning
LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT Default system locale.
LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT Default user locale.



dwFlags
[in] Specifies various function options. If lpFormat is non-NULL, this
parameter must be zero.
If lpFormat is NULL, you can specify a combination of the following
values. Value Meaning
LOCALE_NOUSEROVERRIDE If set, the function formats the string using
the system default-date format for the specified locale. If not set,
the function formats the string using any user overrides to the
locale's default-date format.
LOCALE_USE_CP_ACP Uses the system ANSI code page for string translation
instead of the locale's code page. See Code Page Identifiers for a list
of ANSI and other code pages.
DATE_SHORTDATE Uses the short date format. This is the default. This
value cannot be used with DATE_LONGDATE or DATE_YEARMONTH.
DATE_LONGDATE Uses the long date format. This value cannot be used with
DATE_SHORTDATE or DATE_YEARMONTH.
DATE_YEARMONTH Uses the year/month format. This value cannot be used
with DATE_SHORTDATE or DATE_LONGDATE.
DATE_USE_ALT_CALENDAR Uses the alternate calendar, if one exists, to
format the date string. If this flag is set, the function uses the
default format for that alternate calendar, rather than using any user
overrides. The user overrides will be used only in the event that there
is no default format for the specified alternate calendar.
DATE_LTRREADING Adds marks for left-to-right reading layout. This value
cannot be used with DATE_RTLREADING.
DATE_RTLREADING Adds marks for right-to-left reading layout. This value
cannot be used with DATE_LTRREADING



If you do not specify either DATE_YEARMONTH, DATE_SHORTDATE, or
DATE_LONGDATE, and lpFormat is NULL, then DATE_SHORTDATE is the default.

lpDate
[in] Pointer to a SYSTEMTIME structure that contains the date
information to be formatted. If this pointer is NULL, the function uses
the current local system date.
lpFormat
[in] Pointer to a format picture string that is used to form the date
string. The format picture string must be zero terminated. If lpFormat
is NULL, the function uses the date format of the specified locale.
Use the following elements to construct a format picture string. If you
use spaces to separate the elements in the format string, these spaces
will appear in the same location in the output string. The letters must
be in uppercase or lowercase as shown in the table (for example, "MM"
not "mm"). Characters in the format string that are enclosed in single
quotation marks will appear in the same location and unchanged in the
output string. Picture Meaning
d Day of month as digits with no leading zero for single-digit days.
dd Day of month as digits with leading zero for single-digit days.
ddd Day of week as a three-letter abbreviation. The function uses the
LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME value associated with the specified locale.
dddd Day of week as its full name. The function uses the
LOCALE_SDAYNAME value associated with the specified locale.
M Month as digits with no leading zero for single-digit months.
MM Month as digits with leading zero for single-digit months.
MMM Month as a three-letter abbreviation. The function uses the
LOCALE_SABBREVMONTHNAME value associated with the specified locale.
MMMM Month as its full name. The function uses the LOCALE_SMONTHNAME
value associated with the specified locale.
y Year as last two digits, but with no leading zero for years less than
10.
yy Year as last two digits, but with leading zero for years less than
10.
yyyy Year represented by full four digits.
gg Period/era string. The function uses the CAL_SERASTRING value
associated with the specified locale. This element is ignored if the
date to be formatted does not have an associated era or period string.



For example, to get the date string

"Wed, Aug 31 94"
use the following picture string:

"ddd',' MMM dd yy"
lpDateStr
[out] Pointer to a buffer that receives the formatted date string.
cchDate
[in] Specifies the size, in TCHARs, of the lpDateStr buffer. If cchDate
is zero, the function returns the number of TCHARs required to hold the
formatted date string, and the buffer pointed to by lpDateStr is not
used.
Return Values
If the function succeeds, the return value is the number of TCHARs
written to the lpDateStr buffer, or if the cchDate parameter is zero,
the number of TCHARs required to hold the formatted date string. The
count includes the terminating null.

If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error
information, call GetLastError. GetLastError may return one of the
following error codes:

ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER
ERROR_INVALID_FLAGS
ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER
Remarks
The earliest date supported by this function is January 1, 1601.

The day name, abbreviated day name, month name, and abbreviated month
name are all localized based on the locale identifier.

The date values in the SYSTEMTIME structure pointed to by lpDate must
be valid. The function checks each of the date values: year, month,
day, and day of week. If the day of the week is incorrect, the function
uses the correct value, and returns no error. If any of the other date
values are outside the correct range, the function fails, and sets the
last-error to ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER.

The function ignores the time portions of the SYSTEMTIME structure
pointed to by lpDate: wHour, wMinute, wSecond, and wMilliseconds.

If the lpFormat parameter is a bad format string, no errors are
returned. The function simply forms the best date string that it can.
For example, the only year pictures that are valid are L"yyyy" and
L"yy" (the 'L' indicates a Unicode (16-bit characters) string). If L"y"
is passed in, the function assumes L"yy". If L"yyy" is passed in, the
function assumes L"yyyy". If more than 4 date (L"dddd") or 4 month
(L"MMMM") pictures are passed in, then the function defaults to L"dddd"
or L"MMMM".

Any text that should remain in its exact form in the date string should
be enclosed within single quotation marks in the date format picture.
The single quotation mark may also be used as an escape character to
allow the single quotation mark itself to be displayed in the date
string. However, the escape sequence must be enclosed within two single
quotation marks. For example, to display the date as "May '93", the
format string would be: L"MMMM ''''yy" The first and last single
quotation marks are the enclosing quotation marks. The second and third
single quotation marks are the escape sequence to allow the single
quotation mark to be displayed before the century.

When the date picture contains a numeric form of the day (either d or
dd) followed by the full month name (MMMM), the genitive form of the
month name is returned in the date string.

To obtain the default short and long date format without performing any
actual formatting, use the GetLocaleInfo function with the
LOCALE_SSHORTDATE or LOCALE_SLONGDATE parameter. To get the date format
for an alternate calendar, use GetLocaleInfo with the
LOCALE_IOPTIONALCALENDAR parameter. To get the date format for a
particular calendar, use GetCalendarInfo. Also, to return all of the
date formats for a particular calendar, you can use EnumCalendarInfo or
EnumDateFormatsEx.

Note: When the ANSI version of this function is used with a
Unicode-only LCID, the call can succeed because the system uses the
system code page. However, characters that are undefined in the system
code page appear in the string as a question mark (?). To determine
which LCIDs are Unicode-only, see Table of Language Identifiers.

Windows 95/98/Me: GetDateFormatW is supported by the Microsoft Layer
for Unicode. To use this, you must add certain files to your
application, as outlined in Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows
95/98/Me Systems.


--
Liz the Brit
.

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