Date formats in Spread Functions

Several Spread functions return dates/times (DATE, GDATE, DSORT, HWO…)  that must be formatted to display the text desired.  When using a datetime in another function (ie V(1,GDATE(2,"Q",2,"m/d/yy")) to get the value for variable 1 for the last day of the 2nd quarter of the report) the format must be able to be converted to a date to work.  The following table displays some common formats, displayed value and whether than can be used in other functions to get the date for the date March 15th , 2019 1:45 PM. 

Format	Displayed	Can be used in other function as a date
mm/dd/yy	03/15/19	Yes
m/d/yyyy	3/15/2019	Yes
mmm yyyy	Mar 2019	No
ddd	Sun	No
hh:mm	13:45	Yes (since the day cannot be determined from the displayed value the start date of the report is used)
hh:mm am/pm	01:45 pm	01:45 pm  Yes (see note above)

The following table identifies characters you can use to create date/time formats:

Character	Description
:	Time separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the time separator. The time separator separates hours, minutes, and seconds when time values are formatted. The actual character used as the time separator in formatted output is determined by your system settings.
/	Date separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the date separator. The date separator separates the day, month, and year when date values are formatted. The actual character used as the date separator in formatted output is determined by your system settings.
c	Display the date as ddddd and display the time as ttttt, in that order. Display only date information if there is no fractional part to the date serial number; display only time information if there is no integer portion.
d	Display the day as a number without a leading zero (1 – 31).
dd	Display the day as a number with a leading zero (01 – 31).
ddd	Display the day as an abbreviation (Sun – Sat).
dddd	Display the day as a full name (Sunday – Saturday).
ddddd	Display the date as a complete date (including day, month, and year), formatted according to your system's short date format setting. The default short date format is m/d/yy.
dddddd	Display a date serial number as a complete date (including day, month, and year) formatted according to the long date setting recognized by your system. The default long date format is mmmm dd, yyyy.
aaaa	The same as dddd, only it's the localized version of the string.
w	Display the day of the week as a number (1 for Sunday through 7 for Saturday).
ww	Display the week of the year as a number (1 – 54).
m	Display 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.
mm	Display the month as a number with a leading zero (01 – 12). If m immediately follows h or hh, the minute rather than the month is displayed.
mmm	Display the month as an abbreviation (Jan – Dec).
mmmm	Display the month as a full month name (January – December).
oooo	The same as mmmm, only it's the localized version of the string.
q	Display the quarter of the year as a number (1 – 4).
y	Display the day of the year as a number (1 – 366).
yy	Display the year as a 2-digit number (00 – 99).
yyyy	Display the year as a 4-digit number (100 – 9999).
h	Display the hour as a number without leading zeros (0 – 23).
hh	Display the hour as a number with leading zeros (00 – 23).
hap	Display the hour (12 hour clock) as a number without leading zeros (0-12)
hhap	Display the hour (12 hour clock) as a number with leading zeros (0-12)
N	Display the minute as a number without leading zeros (0 – 59).
nn	Display the minute as a number with leading zeros (00 – 59).
s	Display the second as a number without leading zeros (0 – 59).
ss	Display the second as a number with leading zeros (00 – 59).
ttttt	Display a time as a complete time (including hour, minute, and second), formatted using the time separator defined by the time format recognized by your system. A leading zero is displayed if the leading zero option is selected and the time is before 10:00 A.M. or P.M. The default time format is h:mm:ss.
AM/PM	Use the 12-hour clock and display an uppercase AM with any hour before noon; display an uppercase PM with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
am/pm	Use the 12-hour clock and display a lowercase AM with any hour before noon; display a lowercase PM with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
A/P	Use the 12-hour clock and display an uppercase A with any hour before noon; display an uppercase P with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
a/p	Use the 12-hour clock and display a lowercase A with any hour before noon; display a lowercase P with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
AMPM	Use the 12-hour clock and display the AM string literal as defined by your system with any hour before noon; display the PM string literal as defined by your system with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M. AMPM can be either uppercase or lowercase, but the case of the string displayed matches the string as defined by your system settings. The default format is AM/PM.
Season	Displays the season for the date (i.e. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter)