# Formatters Formatting functions in SurrealQL accept certain text formats for date/time formatting. The [string::is_datetime](/docs/reference/query-language/functions/database-functions/string.md#stringis_datetime) and [time::format](/docs/reference/query-language/functions/database-functions/time.md#timeformat) functions in SurrealQL accept certain text formats for date/time formatting. The possible formats are listed below. ### Date formatters
Specifier Example Description
%Y 2001 The full proleptic Gregorian year, zero-padded to 4 digits.
%C 20 The proleptic Gregorian year divided by 100, zero-padded to 2 digits.
%y 01 The proleptic Gregorian year modulo 100, zero-padded to 2 digits.
%m 07 Month number (01 to 12), zero-padded to 2 digits.
%b Jul Abbreviated month name. Always 3 letters.
%B July Full month name.
%h Jul Same as %b.
%d 08 Day number (01 to 31), zero-padded to 2 digits.
%e 8 Same as %d but space-padded. Same as %_d.
%a Sun Abbreviated weekday name. Always 3 letters.
%A Sunday Full weekday name.
%w 0 Day of the week. Sunday = 0, Monday = 1, ..., Saturday = 6.
%u 7 Day of the week. Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, ..., Sunday = 7. ([RFC 3339](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339))
%U 28 Week number starting with Sunday (00 to 53), zero-padded to 2 digits.
%W 27 Same as %U, but week 1 starts with the first Monday in that year instead.
%G 2001 Same as %Y but uses the year number in [RFC 3339](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339) week date.
%g 01 Same as %y but uses the year number in [RFC 3339](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339) week date.
%V 27 Same as %U but uses the week number in [RFC 3339](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339) week date (01 to 53).
%j 189 Day of the year (001 to 366), zero-padded to 3 digits.
%D 07/08/01 Month-day-year format. Same as %m/%d/%y.
%x 07/08/01 Locale's date representation.
%F 2001-07-08 Year-month-day format ([RFC 3339](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339)). Same as %Y-%m-%d.
%v 8-Jul-2001 Day-month-year format. Same as %e-%b-%Y.
### Time formatters
Specifier Example Description
%H 00 Hour number (00 to 23), zero-padded to 2 digits.
%k 0 Same as %H but space-padded. Same as %_H.
%I 12 Hour number in 12-hour clocks (01 to 12), zero-padded to 2 digits.
%l 12 Same as %I but space-padded. Same as %_I.
%P am am or pm in 12-hour clocks.
%p AM AM or PM in 12-hour clocks.
%M 34 Minute number (00 to 59), zero-padded to 2 digits.
%S 60 Second number (00 to 60), zero-padded to 2 digits.
%f 026490000 The fractional seconds (in nanoseconds) since last whole second.
%.f .026490 Similar to %f but left-aligned.
%.3f .026 Similar to .%f but left-aligned but fixed to a length of 3.
%.6f .026490 Similar to .%f but left-aligned but fixed to a length of 6.
%.9f .026490000 Similar to .%f but left-aligned but fixed to a length of 9.
%3f 026 Similar to %.3f but without the leading dot.
%6f 026490 Similar to %.6f but without the leading dot.
%9f 026490000 Similar to %.9f but without the leading dot.
%R 00:34 Hour-minute format. Same as %H:%M.
%T 00:34:59 Hour-minute-second format. Same as %H:%M:%S.
%X 00:34:59 Locale's time representation.
%r 12:34:59 AM Hour-minute-second format in 12-hour clocks. Same as %I:%M:%S %p.
%x 07/08/01 Locale's date representation.
%F 2001-07-08 Year-month-day format ([RFC 3339](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339)). Same as %Y-%m-%d.
%v 8-Jul-2001 Day-month-year format. Same as %e-%b-%Y.
### Timezones formatters
Specifier Example Description
%Z ACST Local time zone name.
%z +0930 Offset from the local time to UTC (with UTC being +0000).
%:z +09:30 Same as %z but with a colon.
### Date & time formatters
Specifier Example Description
%c Sun Jul 8 00:34:59 2001 Locale's date and time.
%+ 2001-07-08T00:34:59.026490+09:30 [RFC 3339](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339) / RFC 3339 date & time format.
%s 994518299 UNIX timestamp, the number of seconds since 1970-01-01T00:00:00.
### Other formatters
Specifier Example Description
%t - Literal tab (\t).
%n - Literal newline (\n).
%% - Literal percent sign.
## Examples Seeing if an input with a date and time conforms to an expected format: ```surql string::is_datetime("5sep2024pm012345.6789", "%d%b%Y%p%I%M%S%.f"); ``` ```surql title="Response" true ``` Another example with a different format: ```surql string::is_datetime("23:56:00 2015-09-05", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"); ``` ```surql title="Response" false ``` Using a formatter to generate a string from a datetime: ```surql time::format(d"2021-11-01T08:30:17+00:00", "%Y-%m-%d"); ``` ```surql title="Response" "2021-11-01" ```