Specifying formats for date, time, or timestamp fields

To format date or time fields:

  1. In Layout mode, select one or more date or time fields (or calculation fields with a date or time result).

  2. In the Inspector, click the Data Data tab.

  3. In the Data Formatting area, click Date Date button or Time Time button. Then:

    To display

    Do this

    Dates or times exactly as entered or in a predefined format

    Choose from the Format list.

    To change the separator between parts of a numeric date, type a different Numeric separator character.

    Dates in a custom format

    For Format, choose Custom.

    Dates or times using the current system formats

    For Format, choose a system date or time option. For example:

    • Short: 11/11/2019 and 8:23 AM

    • Long: Monday, November 11, 2019 and 8:23:54 AM

    FileMaker Pro formats dates and times according to the current system formats when the file is opened.

    Dates with leading zeros (01/02/99) or leading spaces in numeric parts of dates

    Choose Leading character options.

    Times with leading zeros (05:09:02) or leading spaces ( 5: 9: 2)

    Times that include fractional seconds

    In the Data Data tab, click Number Number button (Windows) (Windows) or Number button (macOS) (macOS) in the Data Formatting area. Select formatting options.

    Only two options affect the display of the seconds component: Fixed number of decimals and Decimal separator.

    Dates or times with different text formatting

    Choose text options using the Appearance Appearance tab in the Inspector. See Specifying text formats for fields.

    Dates or times using a different Japanese display (if you're using a font that contains Japanese characters)

    In the Japanese area, choose a Numeral type.

  4. Press Enter or Tab, or click outside the Inspector to apply the changes.

To format timestamp fields:

  • In the Data Formatting area of the Data Data tab, choose a format for each timestamp component by clicking Date Date button, Time Time button, and Number Number button (Windows) (Windows) or Number button (macOS) (macOS).

    You must specify formats for date and time components before any formatting will be applied. If you select As entered for either Date or Time, the data in the timestamp field appears the way it is entered.

Related topics