# FormatDateTime
Creates a string from a DateTime value as specified by a pattern.
This function returns a String.
## Related examples
* [Converting a DateTime element to a string](https://help.qlik.com/talend/en-US/data-mapper-functions-reference-guide/8.0/converting-datetime-element-to-string)
## Arguments
| Arguments | Definitions |
| --- | --- |
| Value | Specify the value to format. |
## Properties
| Properties | Definitions |
| --- | --- |
| Pattern | Enter the pattern to be used when parsing the value into a
date/time. For example YYYY-MM-dd
would parse 1960-09-11. See the
list of permitted values for examples.
The count of
pattern letters determine the format.
Text : If the number of
pattern letters is 4 or more, the full form is used; otherwise a
short or abbreviated form is used if available.
Number : The minimum number
of digits. Shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount.
Year : Numeric presentation
for year and weekyear fields are handled specially. For example, if
the count of y is 2, the year
will be displayed as the zero-based year of the century, which is
two digits.
Month : 3 or over, use text,
otherwise use number.
Zone : Z outputs offset without a colon,
ZZ outputs the offset
with a colon, ZZZ or more
outputs the zone id.
Any characters in the
pattern that are not in the ranges of ['a'..'z'] and ['A'..'Z'] will be treated as quoted text. For
instance, characters like :,
., #, ? and spaces will appear in the resulting time text
even if they are not surrounded by single quotes. |
## Permitted values
| Symbol | Description | Format | Example |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| G | era | text | AD |
| C | century of era (>=0) | number | 20 |
| Y | year of era (>=0) | year | 1996 |
| x | weekyear | year | 1996 |
| w | week of weekyear | number | 27 |
| e | day of week | number | 2 |
| E | day of week | text | Tuesday, Tue |
| y | year | year | 1996 |
| D | day of year | number | 189 |
| M | month of year | month | July, Jul,
07 |
| d | day of month | number | 10 |
| a | halfday of day | text | PM |
| K | hour of halfday (0-11) | number | 0 |
| h | clockhour of halfday (1-12) | number | 12 |
| H | hour of day (0-23) | number | 0 |
| k | clockhour of day (1-24) | number | 24 |
| m | minute of hour | number | 30 |
| s | second of minute | number | 55 |
| S | fraction of second | number | 978 |
| z | time zone | text | Pacific Standard Time,
PST |
| Z | time zone offset/id | zone | -0800, -08:00,
America/Los\_Angeles |
| ' | escape for text | delimiter | Not applicable. |
| '' | single quote | literal | ' |