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12 votes for this article.

Popularity: 3.72 Rating: 3.45 out of 5

Download source code - 17.6 KB

Introduction

Some time ago, in one of my projects, I needed to print the current date and time in the page footer. Since the program was in MFC, I just went ahead and quickly added three lines:

CTime time = CTime::GetCurrentTime();
CString strDate = time.Format("%x");
CString strTime = time.Format ("%X");

Well, I noticed right away that the output looked like this:

12/30/05
19:10:23

Not quite the same as I set in my Windows' Regional Settings:

2005-12-30
19:10:23 PM

Sample Image - regional_options_date.png

There must be an easy way to match the user's settings, I thought. After digging into MSDN, I found that the API function that I should use is GetLocaleInfo. It can be queried to get all kinds of information, including the format string used by the user for the date and time. So then, I wrote two functions to parse the format strings for date and time and build the output string. These functions are shown at the end (Listing 2).

Update 2008-08-19

The great thing about CodeProject is that it is a two-way street: everybody can comment on your code and suggest better ways. Well, thanks to Vladimir Alemasov for pointing out setlocale. This is what I was missing in my simple three-liner above. If I set the CRT's locale as per user settings, I'd get exactly the same format as he/she set in the Control Panel. Here's the way to set CRT's locale, suggested by Chris Grimes in his article:

::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SENGLANGUAGE, szBuf, STR_SZ);
_tcscpy(szLocale, szBuf);
::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SENGCOUNTRY, szBuf, STR_SZ);
if (_tcsclen(szBuf) != 0){
    _tcscat(szLocale, _T("_"));
    _tcscat(szLocale, szBuf);
}
::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, LOCALE_IDEFAULTANSICODEPAGE, szBuf, STR_SZ);
if (_tcsclen(szBuf) != 0){
    _tcscat(szLocale, _T("."));
    _tcscat(szLocale, szBuf);
}

_tsetlocale(LC_ALL, szLocale); // e.g. szLocale = "English_United States.1252"

Note, that I use LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT for the call to get the default code page. There's not much about it on MSDN, but I found this by trial and error.

Also note that if you are not doing anything else locale specific in the rest of your program, you should reset the locale back to default after you are done with formatting the date and time. Otherwise, you might get some unexpected surprises when outputting or parsing numbers.

Listing 1

This code sets the CRT library's locale to match the user settings specified in the Regional Options. Then, it uses simple formatting functions to create a string with the current date and time. Both Win32 and MFC formatting ways are shown. Make sure to reset the locale back to default after you are done. This code will work for Unicode and non-Unicode programs.

// Set CRT library locale to user and system
// defaults to get correct date/time formatting
::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SENGLANGUAGE, szBuf, STR_SZ);
_tcscpy(szLocale, szBuf);
::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SENGCOUNTRY, szBuf, STR_SZ);
if (_tcsclen(szBuf) != 0){
    _tcscat(szLocale, _T("_"));
    _tcscat(szLocale, szBuf);
}
::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, 
     LOCALE_IDEFAULTANSICODEPAGE, szBuf, STR_SZ);
if (_tcsclen(szBuf) != 0){
    _tcscat(szLocale, _T("."));
    _tcscat(szLocale, szBuf);
}

_tsetlocale(LC_ALL, szLocale);
// e.g. szLocale = "English_United States.1252"

// Win32 way
{
    TCHAR strDate[STR_SZ];
    TCHAR strTime[STR_SZ];

    time_t lt;
    time (&lt);
    tm* timeptr = localtime (&lt); // get current time

    _tcsftime(strDate, STR_SZ, _T("%x"), timeptr); // format date
    _tcsftime(strTime, STR_SZ, _T("%X"), timeptr); // format time
}


// MFC way
{
    CTime time = CTime::GetCurrentTime();
    CString strDate = time.Format("%x");
    CString strTime = time.Format ("%X");
}

Listing 2

This code shows two functions, one for formatting date and the other for formatting time. Each function retrieves the appropriate formatting string from locale settings, then it parses this string to build the output string for date or time. This code does not set the CRT library locale, so you don't need to worry about switching it back. It uses MFC, and will work for Unicode and non-Unicode programs.

CString get_date_in_user_format (CTime& time)
{
    CString strTmpFormat;
    CString strDate;
    WCHAR* szData = NULL;
    int num_chars = 
      GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SSHORTDATE, szData, 0);
    if (num_chars != 0)
    {
        szData = new WCHAR[num_chars+1];
        szData[num_chars] = '\0';
        GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
              LOCALE_SSHORTDATE, szData, num_chars);
        CString strTmp (szData);
        int ind = 0;
        int len = strTmp.GetLength();
        while (ind < len)
        {
            switch (strTmp[ind])
            {
                case 'y':
                {
                    int year_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 'y'){ 
                        ind++;
                        year_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (year_type){
                        case 4: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), time.GetYear());
                                strDate += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 2: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%02d"), time.GetYear() % 100);
                                strDate += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 1: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), time.GetYear() % 10);
                                strDate += strTmpFormat; break;
                    }
                    break;
                }
                case 'M':
                {
                    int month_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 'M'){ 
                        ind++;
                        month_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (month_type){
                        case 4:
                        {
                            WCHAR szMonth[500]={0};
                            if (0<GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
                                    LOCALE_SMONTHNAME1+time.GetMonth()-1, szMonth, 499)){
                                strDate += szMonth;
                            }
                            break;
                        }
                        case 3:
                        {
                            WCHAR szMonth[500]={0};
                            if (0<GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
                                   LOCALE_SABBREVMONTHNAME1+time.GetMonth()-1, 
                                   szMonth, 499)){
                                strDate += szMonth;
                            }
                            break;
                        }
                        case 2: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("02d"), time.GetMonth());
                                strDate += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 1: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), time.GetMonth());
                                strDate += strTmpFormat; break;
                    }
                    break;
                }
                case 'd':
                {
                    int day_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 'd'){ 
                        ind++;
                        day_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (day_type){
                        case 4:
                        {
                            UINT DayOfWeekFull[] = {
                                LOCALE_SDAYNAME7,   // Sunday
                                LOCALE_SDAYNAME1,   
                                LOCALE_SDAYNAME2,
                                LOCALE_SDAYNAME3,
                                LOCALE_SDAYNAME4, 
                                LOCALE_SDAYNAME5, 
                                LOCALE_SDAYNAME6   // Saturday
                            };
                            WCHAR szDayOfWeek[500]={0};
                            if (0<GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
                                    DayOfWeekFull[time.GetDayOfWeek()-1], 
                                    szDayOfWeek, 499)){
                                strDate += szDayOfWeek;
                            }
                            break;
                        }
                        case 3:
                        {
                            UINT DayOfWeekAbbr[] = {
                                LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME7,   // Sunday
                                LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME1,   
                                LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME2,
                                LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME3,
                                LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME4, 
                                LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME5, 
                                LOCALE_SABBREVDAYNAME6   // Saturday
                            };
                            WCHAR szDayOfWeek[500]={0};
                            if (0<GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
                                    DayOfWeekAbbr[time.GetDayOfWeek()-1], 
                                    szDayOfWeek, 499)){
                                strDate += szDayOfWeek;
                            }
                            break;
                        }
                        case 2: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%02d"), time.GetDay());
                                strDate += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 1: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), time.GetDay());
                                strDate += strTmpFormat; break;
                    }
                    break;
                }
                default:
                    strDate += CString(strTmp[ind]);
                    break;
            }
            ind++;
        }
        delete szData;
    }

    if (strDate.IsEmpty()){
        strDate = time.Format(_T("%x")); // fallback mechanism
    }

    return strDate;
}
 
CString get_time_in_user_format (CTime& time)
{
    CString strTmpFormat;
    CString strTime;
    WCHAR* szData = NULL;
    int num_chars = GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
                        LOCALE_STIMEFORMAT, szData, 0);
    if (num_chars != 0)
    {
        szData = new WCHAR[num_chars+1];
        szData[num_chars] = '\0';
        GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
                       LOCALE_STIMEFORMAT, szData, num_chars);
        CString strTmp (szData);
        int ind = 0;
        int len = strTmp.GetLength();
        while (ind < len)
        {
            switch (strTmp[ind])
            {
                case 't':
                {
                    int time_marker_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 't'){ 
                        ind++;
                        time_marker_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (time_marker_type){
                        case 2:
                        case 1:
                        {
                            WCHAR szTimemarker[500]={0};
                            LCTYPE am_or_pm = LOCALE_S1159; //AM
                            if (time.GetHour() >= 0 && time.GetHour() < 12){
                                am_or_pm = LOCALE_S1159; //AM
                            }else{
                                am_or_pm = LOCALE_S2359; //PM
                            }
                            if (0<GetLocaleInfoW(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 
                                           am_or_pm, szTimemarker, 499)){
                                if (time_marker_type == 1){
                                    strTime += CString(szTimemarker, 1);
                                }else{
                                    strTime += szTimemarker;
                                }
                            }
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                    break;
                }
                case 's':
                {
                    int seconds_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 's'){ 
                        ind++;
                        seconds_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (seconds_type){
                        case 2: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%02d"), time.GetSecond());
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 1: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), time.GetSecond());
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                    }
                    break;
                }
                case 'm':
                {
                    int minute_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 'm'){ 
                        ind++;
                        minute_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (minute_type){
                        case 2: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%02d"), time.GetMinute());
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 1: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), time.GetMinute());
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                    }
                    break;
                }
                case 'H':
                {
                    int hour_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 'H'){ 
                        ind++;
                        hour_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (hour_type){
                        case 2: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("02d"), time.GetHour());
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 1: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), time.GetHour());
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                    }
                    break;
                }
                case 'h':
                {
                    int hour_12_format = time.GetHour() % 12;
                    if (hour_12_format==0){
                        hour_12_format = 12;
                    }
                    int hour_type = 0;
                    while (ind < len && strTmp[ind] == 'h'){ 
                        ind++;
                        hour_type++;
                    }
                    ind--;
                    switch (hour_type){
                        case 2: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("02d"), hour_12_format);
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                        case 1: strTmpFormat.Format(_T("%d"), hour_12_format);
                                strTime += strTmpFormat; break;
                    }
                    break;
                }
                default:
                    strTime += CString(strTmp[ind]);
                    break;
            }
            ind++;
        }
        delete szData;
    }

    if (strTime.IsEmpty()){
        strTime = time.Format(_T("%X")); //fallback mechanism
    }

    return strTime;
}

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Damir Valiulin

Member

Occupation:	Software Developer
Location:	Canada

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Msgs 1 to 10 of 10 (Total in Forum: 10) (Refresh)

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This is how I format Dates and Times, using MFC the locale set in the control panel.

Richard M Willis

3:08 9 Sep '09

I just create a dummy Date/Time Picker control, set the date/time into it accordingly, and do a GetWindowText() on it. My concerns are that CTime() may except, and (under VC++ 6.0 at least), the CDateTimeCtrl object GPFs in the debug build.

Hope this is of use to someone.


extern CString FormattedLongDate(int ye, int mo, int qu)
{
  CString s;
#ifndef _DEBUG
  CRect re(0,0,10,10);  // Dummy rectangle for holding the (invisible) date/time picker control
  CTime ct(ye,mo,qu,0,0,0);
  CDateTimeCtrl x;
  if (x.Create(DTS_LONGDATEFORMAT,re,AfxGetApp()->GetMainWnd(),19000))
  {
    ct = CTime(ye,mo,qu,ct.GetHour(),ct.GetMinute(),ct.GetSecond());
    x.SetTime(&ct);
    x.GetWindowText(s);
    x.DestroyWindow();
  }
#else
  // Date/Time Picker controls don't work in debug mode.
  s.Format(TEXT("%04d-%02d-%02d"),ye,mo,qu);
#endif
  return s;
}

another simple solution

Vladimir Alemasov

2:06 2 May '08

It's possible to use _tcsftime function if you use CRT-library and need to represent time and date for current locale: `_tcsftime(strDest, maxsize, _T("%x"), timeptr); // Date representation for current locale _tcsftime(strDest, maxsize, _T("%X"), timeptr); // Time representation for current locale`
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Re: another simple solution

Damir Valiulin

8:05 19 Aug '08

Vladimir,

Thanks for the info. Indeed the formatting function you show is the same that CTime::Format is using. This was the first thing I tried. So why did it not work for me before? Well, I did not set CRT library's locale!

Through your comment to another article, I found the proper method for setting CRT locale suggested by Chris Grimes: [^]:

	const int STR_SZ = 1024;
	TCHAR szBuf[STR_SZ] = { 0 };
	TCHAR szLocale[STR_SZ] = { 0 };

	::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SENGLANGUAGE, szBuf, STR_SZ);
	::_tcscpy(szLocale, szBuf);
	::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, LOCALE_SENGCOUNTRY, szBuf, STR_SZ);
	if (::_tcsclen(szBuf) != 0){
		::_tcscat(szLocale, _T("_"));
		::_tcscat(szLocale, szBuf);
	}
	::GetLocaleInfo(LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, LOCALE_IDEFAULTANSICODEPAGE, szBuf, STR_SZ);
	if (::_tcsclen(szBuf) != 0){
		::_tcscat(szLocale, _T("."));
		::_tcscat(szLocale, szBuf);
	}

	_tsetlocale(LC_ALL, szLocale);

Notice that I use LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT in first two GetLocaleInfo calls to retrieve user default settings for language and country, while in the query for default ansi code page I use LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT constant. This way it works just right!

Thanks,
Damir

simple solution

dis1411

7:52 15 Feb '06

i get good results from COleDateTime COleDateTime start(time(NULL)); CString strTime = start.Format(VAR_TIMEVALUEONLY); CString strDate = start.Format(VAR_DATEVALUEONLY); for me produces 12:53:38 PM 2/15/2006 //note the 2 by itself, no leading 0
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Re: simple solution

Damir Valiulin

8:50 15 Feb '06

Nice! Thanks. There's always something new to learn!

It seems however, that this method only "tries" to follow the format specified in the Control Panel, but doesn't duplicate it exatly as like my parser does.

For example, I like 24-hour notation, but living here in North America I'm also used to AM/PM suffix. So I set my time format in Control Panel as: "HH:mm:ss tt" which gives me "13:39:25 PM" (current time).

Using COleDateTime to format, I got "13:39:25" - no PM suffix. Also, I tried the following formatting string in Control Panel: "HH: mm-ss" and got "13: 39: 25". So it seems like it tries its best, but it doesn't produce an exact match.

Having said that, there aren't many users who fiddle with date/time format in the Control Panel, so the solution you mention would work 99% of the time with only 3 lines of code.

Thanks.

5.00/5 (2 votes)

Re: simple solution

etking0072004

0:09 11 May '09

COleDateTime format will follow exactly the Control Panel time format. I not sure why in ur case that there is no AM/PM suffix. But in my case, it show perfectly. COleDateTime time (2009, 5, 11, 22, 0 ,0); TRACE(_T("%s"), time.Format());
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SQL Problem

Vertyg0

5:23 31 Dec '05

I have sql related problem. Since i`m making application that will be used on alot of computers i have sumble upon one problem. SQL server sometimes doesn`t format (that is doesnt accept) date time like it is stated in regional settings, since it is getting format from OLE I have to execute SET DATETIMEFORMAT DMY or any combination of D,M,Y I want to use before executing insert or update command.
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Re: SQL Problem

Colin Angus Mackay

7:39 31 Dec '05

Use a locale neutral format such as ISO. Where the dates are formatted as YYYY-MM-DD The way I see it, the database should not be dealing with locale specific formatting of data, that is the responsibility of the User Interface layer. My: Blog \| Photos "Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in." -- Confucius
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Possible alternative...

STRX

3:43 31 Dec '05

Have you considered using: GetLocalTime(<); GetDateFormat(LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, 0, <, "dd'-'MMM'-'yyyy", (LPTSTR) szText, sizeof(szText));
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Re: Possible alternative...

Damir Valiulin

9:34 31 Dec '05

Well everyday you learn something new! My goal was to format date using exactly the same formatting string as specified in Control Panel. Reading MSDN on `GetDateFormat` it seems to me that I would still have to parse the string that I extract using `GetLocaleInfo` and add single quotation marks around non-formatting characters. But this alternative is a little shorter. Thanks!
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