How to format date string in PowerShell?

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By default the when you run the (Get-Date) cmdlet, its output is in the below format.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date
18 March 2020 22:56:18

You can format the above output in the various format supported by PowerShell.

Examples

d – Short date pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format d
18-03-2020

D – Long date pattern

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format D
18 March 2020

f – Full date pattern with a short time pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format f
18 March 2020 23:01

F – Full date pattern with a long time pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format F
18 March 2020 23:02:22

g – General date pattern with a short time pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format g 18-03-2020 23:03

G – General date pattern with a long time pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format G
18-03-2020 23:05:39

M/m – Month day pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format M
18 March
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format m
18 March

O,o – Round trip date/time pattern

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format O
2020-03-18T23:08:36.8098960+05:30
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format o
2020-03-18T23:08:36.8098960+05:30

R,r – RFC1123 pattern

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format R
Wed, 18 Mar 2020 23:10:06 GMT
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format r
Wed, 18 Mar 2020 23:10:06 GMT

s – Sortable Date/Time pattern

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format s
2020-03-18T23:12:12

t – Short time pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format t
23:13

T – Long time pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format T
23:13:09

u – Universal Sortable date/time pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format u
2020-03-19 20:21:37Z

U – Universal Full date/time format.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format U
19 March 2020 14:51:41

Y,y – Year month pattern.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format y
March, 2020
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format Y
March, 2020

You can also format Get-Date into the .NET format and for that, you need to use –Format parameter.

.NET format specifier can be used as below.

dddd	Day of the week – Full Name
MM	Month number
dd	Day of the month – 2 digits
yyyy	Year in 4-digit format
HH:mm	Time in 24-hour format –no seconds
K	Timezone format in UTC (Universal Time Coordinate)

You can use any of the above combinations to format the date in the required format.

Example

Get-Date -Format "dd/MM/yyyy"
19-03-2020

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format "dd/MM/yyyy -- dddd"
19-03-2020 -- Thursday

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Date -Format "HH:mm K"
20:44 +05:30

You can format the date string into the universal format as well and for that, you need to use –Uformat parameter. Below specifiers used for the universal format.

%A	Day of the week – Full Name
%m	Month number
%d	Day of the month – 2 digits
%Y	Year in 4-digit format
%R	Time in 24-hour format –no seconds
%Z	Timezone offset from UTC