The Format Tab

Restriction: This topic applies to Windows environments only.

Date Format	Used to create a `picture` of the date display format that is used when displaying or entering date values. Choose an International Standard from the list box. Choose LOCAL to define your own date format. You can also set special month and weekday formats. For more information on defining pictures, see Picture Definitions Overview.
	Standard	Description	Format
	USA	IBM USA Standard	mm/dd/yyyy
	EUR	IBM European Standard	dd.mm.yyyy
	JIS	Japanese Industrial Standard Christian Era	yyyy-mm-dd

Date Picture

A display of the date format you selected. If you select LOCAL for the DATE FORMAT, you can type your own format in the DATE PICTURE field.

Months

Select a picture of the month portion of the date format.

Weekdays

Select a picture of the day-of-week portion of the date format. Three formats are available: WW, WWW and WWWW:

The WW format causes a number between 1 and 7 to be displayed. 1 corresponds to Monday, 2 to Tuesday, etc.
The WWW format displays a three-character text abbreviation (Mon, Tue, etc.).
The WWWW format is a string of up to 9 characters that displays the full day of the week in text (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)

For more information on defining pictures, see Picture Definitions Overview.

Time Format	This section allows you to specify the default format for displaying or printing time fields. The format is also used for data entry input. Because the format you select is used as the default time format for display and input in most Micro Focus applications, it is important to select the time mask with care. In some utilities you can override the default time mask by defining masks or pictures for specific columns. Select from a list of predefined formats (ISO, USA, EUR and JIS). To edit your own time picture position select LOCAL. The cursor will be positioned so that you can enter your own time format. For rules on defining time formats, see Time Pictures Overview. The following table shows the available time formats.
	Standard	Description	Format
	USA	IBM USA Standard	hh:mm AM or PM
	EUR	IBM European Standard	hh.mm.ss
	JIS	Japanese Industrial Standard Christian Era	hh.mm.ss

Time Picture	A display of the time format you selected. If you select LOCAL for the TIME FORMAT, you can type your own format in the TIME PICTURE field.
Time Zone	Used to define the time zone offset from Greenwich Mean Time; this is the difference between your system clock and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The intent of the field is to simplify conversion of a timestamp to GMT. To standardize times in your geographically-distributed databases, select the offset from the Time Zone list box. Enter the number of hours offset (-24 to 24) from GMT.
Timestamp Format	Displays the timestamp format used when storing this information in system tables. You cannot change this format.
Numeric Formats	Use this section to specify the following numeric formats. Because the formats you select are used as the default formats for display and input in most Micro Focus utilities, it is important to select the masks with care.
Money Format	Used to define money display/input format. This function allows you to specify the default format for use when displaying or printing money fields. The format is also be used for input in some data entry utilities. Money values are always stored in XDB Server databases as decimal(15,2), but you can set the default money display and input format using this option. Money pictures should be defined according to the rules for numeric picture. See Numeric Masks Overview.
Decimal Format	Used to define decimal display/input format. Decimal values are stored in databases according to the precision and scale you specify, but you can set the default decimal input and display format using this option. Decimal pictures should be defined according to the rules for numeric picture. See Numeric Masks Overview.
Float Decimal Places	Used to specify the default number of decimal places when displaying or printing float fields. XDB Server provides precision of up to 15 places for all float calculations, comparisons and displays. The default precision is set at 2. If you need more than 15 decimal places, use a decimal format instead of float. Decimals can have up to 31 decimal places.