You can use numeric formatting characters to display date and time values in particular formats. These formats work with a variable's ToString method as well as with String.Format. For example, the code DateTime.Now.ToString("f") returns the current date and time in full date/time format with a short time.

This example builds a ListView that demonstrates the various standard date and time formats. It then uses code from the example Make a program generate HTML table code for ListView data and display it in a WebBrowser control in C# to convert the results into the following HTML table.

Date Formats
Name	Format	Result
Short date	d	3/5/2010
Long date	D	Friday, March 05, 2010
Month/day	M or m	March 05
Year/month	Y or y	March, 2010
Time Formats
Name	Format	Result
Short time	t	7:08 AM
Long time	T	7:08:34 AM
Date/Time Formats
Name	Format	Result
Full date/time (short time)	f	Friday, March 05, 2010 7:08 AM
Full date/time (long time)	F	Friday, March 05, 2010 7:08:34 AM
General date/time (short time)	g	3/5/2010 7:08 AM
General date/time (long time)	G	3/5/2010 7:08:34 AM
Round-trip date/time	O or o	2010-03-05T07:08:34.4406435-07:00
RFC1123	R or r	Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:08:34 GMT
Sortable date/time	s	2010-03-05T07:08:34
Universal sortable date/time	u	2010-03-05T07:08:34
Universal full date/time	U	2010-03-05 07:08:34Z

See also:

• Use the DateTime class's standard formatting methods in C#
• Use custom date and time formats in C#
• Use custom numeric formats in C#
• Use standard date and time formats in C#
• Use standard numeric formats in C#
• Use standard numeric formats in C# (earlier version)