PowerShell Get-Date Format

In this article, we will discuss and use PowerShell’s Get-Date Format (or Date Format) command. Date and times properties are used several times throughout the PowerShell scripts. Using the Get-Date cmdlet, we can retrieve the current date of our machine. The default format of date is defined on the local system on which we run the command. There are several formats and parameters are used with the Get-Date command. Here, we will only focus on the formatting and display the different date results.

Before performing all the Get-Date cmdlet operations on the PowerShell, we must know how to start the PowerShell tool (application).

Start PowerShell as an Administrator

There are various ways to start PowerShell as an Administrator; some of the basic ways are mentioned below:

1. Run PowerShell as an Administrator using Windows’s search bar

Step 1: Windows 10 operating system comes with a search field in the taskbar. Point the cursor in the search field and type “powershell” (or PowerShell).

PowerShell Get-Date Format

Step 2: Based on the search result, right-click on the Windows PowerShell and Run as Administrator. It will take you to Windows PowerShell’s as administrator mode.

PowerShell Get-Date Format

2. Run PowerShell as an Administrator using Run window

Step 1: Press the Windows + R keys simultaneously, and it will open a Run dialog box. Now, type the PowerShell in the Run dialog box and click on the OK button.

PowerShell Get-Date Format

Step 2: Step 1 opens the normal PowerShell windows for the current user. Now, on the PowerShell windows, type the command start-process powershell -verb runas and press the “enter” key.

PowerShell Get-Date Format

Step 3: The above command asks you to open Windows PowerShell as an administrator mode; click OK to allow, and it will bring the Windows PowerShell to the administrator.

PowerShell Get-Date Format

Date Formatting Parameters

Followings are the different types of date format in PowerShell:

  • DisplayHint
  • Format
  • UFormat

When to use Get-Date

The Get-Date command returns a DateTime object that shows the current date or date you specify on your local device. Let’s see the default format of the system when we use the Get-Date command.

PowerShell Get-Date Format

The Get-Date command returns a date and time value in string type of various UNIX and .NET formats and moves the string to other cmdlets.

The format of output shown on your shell’s screen is based on your formatted computer settings. To view your device date settings, use the (Get-Culture).DateTimeFormat command; it will return different date and time formats.

PowerShell Get-Date Format

How to use the Get-Date command

The command Get-Date returns the current date and time of the system, and the result is shown in the form of long-date and long-time formats.

PowerShell Get-Date Format

If we use a Format-List cmdlet with Get-Date, we will see the full information that returns various dates and time formats. The command Get-Date returns a DateTime object. Let see the output of using the Get-Date | Format-List cmdlet:

PowerShell Get-Date Format

DisplayHint

The DisplayHint parameter defines the type of information we want to display on the screen. This parameter also returns the DateTime object; however, it has three different types of formats, including Date, Time, and DateTime. The -DisplayHint parameter uses anyone from Date, Time, or DateTime at a time.

  • Date: it only returns the current date value.
  • Time: it only returns a current time value.
  • DateTime: it returns both the current date and time values.

Let see the output of using the followings cmdlets:

PowerShell Get-Date Format

Format

Using the -Format parameter in the PowerShell command, you can display date and time in a specific format that you specify. The -Format parameter accepts all values which are allowed in the Microsoft .Net framework and included in the DateTimeFormatInfo Class. There are different format options available that you can use to format your date and time results according to your requirement.

Note that the result returned by -Format parameter is not the DateTime object; instead, they will a String result. We are mentioned some of the standard format specifiers information and their short description, which are provided by Microsoft.

Standard Strings Format Specifiers

Some of the standard .NET strings format specifiers that are mostly used are defined below:

SpecifierDescription
ddddreturns a day of the week in full name
MMreturns month number
ddreturns a day of the month in 2 digits
yyyyreturns a year in 4-digit
HH:mmreturns a time in 24-hour format without seconds
Kreturns the time zone offset from Universal Time Coordinate (UTC)

For example:

Let see an example to retrieve the date and time in a .NET format specifier using the following – Format parameter and several .NET format specifiers:

PowerShell Get-Date Format

Optional Format list

Date
dreturns short date patternDreturns long date patternfreturns full date/time pattern (short time)Freturns full date/time pattern (long time)greturns general date/time (short time)Greturns general date/time (long time)m or Mreturns month day patternoreturns round-trip date/time patternr or Rreturns RFC1123 patternsreturns sortable date/time pattern; conforms to ISO 8601u or Ureturns sortable date/time patterny or Yreturns year month pattern