Custom date and time format strings

Custom date and time format strings

The "fff" custom format specifier

The "fff" custom format specifier represents the three most significant digits of the seconds fraction; that is, it represents the milliseconds in a date and time value.

The following example includes the "fff" custom format specifier in a custom format string.

The "ffff" custom format specifier

The "ffff" custom format specifier represents the four most significant digits of the seconds fraction; that is, it represents the ten thousandths of a second in a date and time value.

Although it's possible to display the ten thousandths of a second component of a time value, that value may not be meaningful. The precision of date and time values depends on the resolution of the system clock. On the Windows NT version 3.5 (and later) and Windows Vista operating systems, the clock's resolution is approximately 10-15 milliseconds.

The "K" custom format specifier

The "K" custom format specifier represents the time zone information of a date and time value. When this format specifier is used with DateTime values, the result string is defined by the value of the DateTime.Kind property:

• For the local time zone (a DateTime.Kind property value of DateTimeKind.Local), this specifier is equivalent to the "zzz" specifier and produces a result string containing the local offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC); for example, "-07:00".

• For a UTC time (a DateTime.Kind property value of DateTimeKind.Utc), the result string includes a "Z" character to represent a UTC date.

• For a time from an unspecified time zone (a time whose DateTime.Kind property equals DateTimeKind.Unspecified), the result is equivalent to String.Empty.

For DateTimeOffset values, the "K" format specifier is equivalent to the "zzz" format specifier, and produces a result string containing the DateTimeOffset value's offset from UTC.

If the "K" format specifier is used without other custom format specifiers, it's interpreted as a standard date and time format specifier and throws a FormatException. For more information about using a single format specifier, see Using Single Custom Format Specifiers later in this article.

The following example displays the string that results from using the "K" custom format specifier with various DateTime and DateTimeOffset values on a system in the U.S. Pacific Time zone.