Special Properties

CALENDAR-FONT (handle)

Set this property to the handle of the font that you would like to use in the drop-down calendar. If no value is specified, the calendar uses the same font as the rest of the control.

DISPLAY-FORMAT (alphanumeric)

This special property gives you the ability to display a custom date and time format. When this property is set, its value takes precedence over any SHORT-DATE, CENTURY-DATE, LONG-DATE, or TIME settings that have been specified.

This property takes a string combining coded fields and quoted literals as its value. The literals are displayed exactly as specified and are set off by single quotation marks ' '. The coded fields are replaced as shown in the following table:

d Numeric day of the month, no leading zeros
dd Numeric day of the month, with leading zeros
ddd Three-letter abbreviation for the day of the week
dddd Full name of the day of the week
M Numeric month, no leading zeros
MM Numeric month, with leading zeros
MMM Three-letter abbreviation for the month
MMMM     Full name of the month
y Last two digits of the year, without leading zeros if less than 10
yy Last two digits of the year
yyyy All four digits of the year
h Hours without leading zeros (12-hour clock)
hh Hours with leading zeros (12-hour clock)
H Hours without leading zeros (24-hour clock)
HH Hours with leading zeros (24-hour clock)
m Minutes without leading zeros
mm Minutes with leading zeros
s Seconds without leading zeros
ss Seconds with leading zeros
t One-character time-marker string (for example, a and p)
tt Multi-character time-marker string (for example, AM and PM)

For example, the format string dd-MMM-yyyy would create output like 16-Feb-2004.

VALUE-FORMAT (numeric)

This special property defines how the date entry control exchanges data with your program. It establishes the format of the control's value. The default VALUE-FORMAT corresponds to the date/time style, as follows:

SHORT_DATE DAVF_YYMMDD
CENTURY_DATE     DAVF_YYYYMMDD
LONG_DATE DAVF_YYYYMMDD
TIME DAVF_HHMMSS
Note: If a custom DISPLAY-FORMAT property is set, the default VALUE-FORMAT is DAVF_YYMMDD..

The following formats, defined in acugui.def, are available:

DAVF-YYYYMMDD (value 0) The control's value is expressed as an eight-digit number:
  • The first four digits are the year
  • The next two digits are the month
  • The last two digits are the day
DAVF-YYMMDD (value 1) The control's value is expressed as a six-digit number:
  • The first two digits are the year
  • The next two digits are the month
  • The last two digits are the day
DAVF-HHMMSShh (value 2) The control's value is expressed as an eight-digit, 24-hour time value, including hundredths of a second:
  • The first two digits are the hour
  • The next two digits are the minutes
  • The next two digits are the seconds
  • The last two digits are hundredths of a second
Note that even though the date entry control cannot display hundredths of a second, it will nonetheless hold the value.
DAVF-HHMMSS (value 3) The control's value is expressed as a six-digit, 24-hour time value:
  • The first two digits are the hour
  • The next two digits are the minutes
  • The last two digits are the seconds
This is the default format when the TIME style is specified when the control is created.
DAVF-YYYYMMDDHHMMSShh (value 4)      The control's full date and time is expressed as a sixteen-digit value. This combines the DAVF-YYYYMMDD and DAVF-HHMMSShh formats, and is the only format that contains both date and time information.
Parent topic: Date Entry