PRB: Week Starts Sunday and Ends Saturday for Format Function

The information in this article applies to:

• Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows, version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

For the date of Sunday January 2, 1994, the Format("01/02/94","ww") function returns week number 2 instead of week number 1.

NOTE: Visual Basic handles dates according to the Country settings in the International option of the Windows Control Panel. When the Country is set to United States, dates such as "01/05/94" are by default interpreted with the month followed by the day, as in mm/dd/yy. For most other Country settings, the day precedes the month, and "05/01/94" is interpreted as dd/mm/yy.

CAUSE

In the Format function, weeks start on a Sunday and go through the following Saturday. In 1994, January 1 is a Saturday, which is the only day in week 1. Week 2 of 1994 starts on Sunday January 2.

Therefore, the Format("01/01/94","ww") function returns 1, and Format("01/02/94","ww") returns 2.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Below are some of the format expressions for the day, week, month, and quarter, as supported by the Format function:

dd Displays the day as a number with a leading zero (01-31).

ddd Displays the day as an abbreviation (Sun-Sat).

dddd Displays the day as a full name (Sunday-Saturday).

w Displays the day of the week as a number (1 for Sunday through 7 for

       Saturday.)

m Displays the month as a number without a leading zero (1-12). If m

       immediately follows h or hh, the minute rather than the month is
       displayed.

       immediately follows h or hh, the minute rather than the month is
       displayed.

mmmm Displays the month as a full month name (January-December).

q Displays the quarter of the year as a number (1-4).

For more information, see the Format and Format$ function topics in the Visual Basic Help menu.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Double-click the form. Add the following to the Form Load event code:

      Sub Form_Load ()
         form1.Show
         Print Format("01/01/94", "ww dddd")
         Print Format("01/05/94", "ww dddd")
      End Sub
   
   

3. Start the program, or press the F5 key to see the following print:

         1 Saturday
         2 Wednesday
   

   The Format function correctly shows Wednesday January 5 as being in week 2 of 1994. Close the form to end the program.