Seems that internationalization is a theme today!
In this customer request a PowerApps application creator wanted to know how to control how the date is displayed in their application.
Just like i mentioned in my previous post Forcing PowerApps to a specific Language; PowerApps picks up this setting from the Windows Setting.
That said it is easy to override using the Text function
Text(Today(),”[$-en-US]dd/mm/yyyy”)
![image]( "image")
For more information about using PowerApps functions please see:
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/formula-reference/
The Text function specifically can be found here:
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/function-text/
(I have included below for offline reading via RSS)
Formats a number or a date/time value for display as a string of text.
Description
The Text function formats a number or a date/time value based on one of these types of arguments:
- A predefined date/time format, which you specify by using the DateTimeFormat enumeration. For dates and times, this approach is preferred as it automatically adjusts to each user’s language and location.
- A custom format, a string of text that comprises placeholders that describe how to format the number or the date/time value. Placeholders define how many digits to show, whether grouping separators should be used, and how to display the name of a month. PowerApps supports a subset of the placeholders that Microsoft Excel does.
See working with dates and times for more information.
Predefined date/time formats
Predefined Format
Description
DateTimeFormat.LongDate
Full year, month, day of the month, and day of the week. The names of the month and the day of the week aren’t abbreviated.
DateTimeFormat.LongDateTime
Full year, month, day of the month, and day of the week, plus hour (12-hour clock), minutes, seconds, and AM/PM designation. The names of the month and the day of the week aren’t abbreviated.
DateTimeFormat.LongDateTime24
Full year, month, day of the month, and day of the week, plus hour (24-hour clock), minutes, and seconds. The names of the month and the day of the week aren’t abbreviated.
DateTimeFormat.LongTime
Hour (12-hour clock), minutes, seconds, and AM/PM designation. Same as ShortTime.
DateTimeFormat.LongTime24
Hour (24-hour clock), minutes, seconds. Same as ShortTime24.
DateTimeFormat.ShortDate
Four-digit year with two-digit month and day of the month.
DateTimeFormat.ShortDateTime
Four-digit year with two-digit month and day of the month, plus hour (12-hour clock), minutes, seconds, and AM/PM designation.
DateTimeFormat.ShortDateTime24
Four-digit year with two-digit month and day of the month, plus hour (24-hour clock), minutes, and seconds.
DateTimeFormat.ShortTime
Hour (12-hour clock), minutes, seconds, and AM/PM designation. Same as LongTime.
DateTimeFormat.ShortTime24
Hour (24-hour clock), minutes, and seconds. Same as LongTime24.
DateTimeFormat.UTC
The date/time value is converted to UTC based on the current user’s time zone and formatted according to the ISO 8601 standard.
Number placeholders
Placeholder
Description
0 (zero)
Displays insignificant zeros if a number has fewer digits than there are zeros in the format. For example, use the format #.00 if you want to display 8.9 as 8.90.
#
Follows the same rules as the 0 (zero). However, Text doesn’t return extra zeros when the number has fewer digits on either side of the decimal than there are # symbols in the format. For example, 8.9 is displayed if the custom format is #.##and the number to format is 8.9.
. (period)
Displays the decimal point in a number. Depends on the language of the custom format, see global apps for more details.
, (comma)
Displays the grouping separator in a number, often used for thousands. Textseparates groups by commas if the format contains a comma that’s enclosed by number signs (#) or by zeros. Depends on the language of the custom format, see global apps for more details.
If a number has more digits to the right of the decimal point than there are placeholders in the format, the number rounds to as many decimal places as there are placeholders. If there are more digits to the left of the decimal point than there are placeholders, the extra digits are displayed. If the format contains only number signs (#) to the left of the decimal point, numbers less than 1 start with a decimal point (for example, .47).
Date and time placeholders
Placeholder
Description
m
Displays the month as a number without a leading zero.
mm
Displays the month as a number with a leading zero when appropriate.
mmm
Displays the month as an abbreviation (Jan to Dec).
mmmm
Displays the month as a full name (January to December).
d
Displays the day as a number without a leading zero.
dd
Displays the day as a number with a leading zero when appropriate.
ddd
Displays the day as an abbreviation (Sun to Sat).
dddd
Displays the day as a full name (Sunday to Saturday).
yy
Displays the year as a two-digit number.
yyyy
Displays the year as a four-digit number.
h
Displays the hour as a number without a leading zero.
hh
Displays the hour as a number with a leading zero when appropriate. If the format contains AM or PM, the hour is shown based on the 12-hour clock. Otherwise, the hour is shown based on the 24-hour clock.
m
Displays the minute as a number without a leading zero. Note: The m or the mmcode must appear immediately after the h or hh code or immediately before the ss code; otherwise, Text returns the month instead of minutes.
mm
Displays the minute as a number with a leading zero when appropriate. Note: The m or the mm placeholder must appear immediately after the h or hh placeholder or immediately before the ss placeholder. Otherwise, Text returns the month instead of minutes.
s
Displays the second as a number without a leading zero.
ss
Displays the second as a number with a leading zero when appropriate.
f
Displays the fractions of seconds.
AM/PM, am/pm, A/P, a/p
Displays the hour based on a 12-hour clock. Text returns “AM”, “am”, “A”, or “a” for times from midnight until noon and “PM”, “pm”, “P”, or “p” for times from noon until midnight
Literal placeholders
You can include any of these characters in your format string. They will appear in the result of Text as is. Additional characters are reserved for future placeholders, so you shouldn’t use them.
Character
Description
Any currency symbol
Dollar sign, cents sign, euro sign, etc.
+
Plus sign
(
Left parenthesis
:
Colon
^
Circumflex accent (caret)
‘
Apostrophe
{
Left curly bracket
<
Less-than sign
=
Equal sign
–
Minus sign
/
Slash mark
)
Right parenthesis
&
Ampersand
~
Tilde
}
Right curly bracket
>
Greater-than sign
Space character
Global apps
The Text function is globally aware. For a wide array of languages, it knows how to properly write out dates, times, currencies, and numbers. To do its job, it needs two pieces of information:
-
The language of the custom format: For authors, how should a custom format be interpreted? The separator characters (. and ,) have different meanings in different languages. This is handled with a special placeholder containing a language tag. Even easier, the predefined date/time formats are language agnostic.
-
The language of the result: For users, what language should be used in the result of the function? Names for months and weekdays need to be in the appropriate language for the user of the app. This is handled with a third optional argument to the Text function.
For both, the language is provided with a language tag. To see the list of supported languages type Text( 1234, “”, ) in the formula bar or advanced view and scroll through the list of locales suggested for the third argument.
Custom format language placeholder
To specify the language of the custom format, use:
Placeholder
Description
[$-LanguageTag]
LanguageTag is a language tag as returned from the Language function. It can be in the form of just the language such as [$-en] for English, or it can also include the region such as [$-en-GB] to further specify Great Britain.
The language placeholder can appear anywhere in the custom format but only once.
While writing a formula, if you do not provide a language placeholder and the format string is ambiguous from a global standpoint, the authoring tool will automatically insert the language tag for your current language.
[$-en-US] is assumed if this placeholder is not present when your app is run.
NOTE: In a future version, the syntax of this placeholder may change to avoid confusion with a similar, but different, placeholder supported by Excel.
Result language tag
Appearing in the result of Text are translated strings for month, weekday, and AM/PM designations, as well as the appropriate group and decimal separators.
By default, Text uses the language of the user running the app. The Language function returns the language tag for the current user. You can override this default by supplying a language tag for the optional third argument to Text.
Syntax
Text( Number, DateTimeFormatEnum [, ResultLanguageTag ] )
- Number – Required. The number or the date/time value to format.
- DateTimeFormat – Required. A member of the DateTimeFormat enumeration.
- ResultLanguageTag – Optional. The language tag to use for the result text. By default, the language of the current user is used.
Text( Number, CustomFormat [, ResultLanguageTag ] )
- Number – Required. The number or the date/time value to format.
- CustomFormat – Required. One or more placeholders enclosed in double quotation marks.
- ResultLanguageTag – Optional. The language tag to use for the result text. By default, the language of the current user is used.
Examples
The user running these formulas is located in the United States and has selected English as their language. The Language function is returning “en-US”.
Number
Formula
Description
Result
Text( 1234.59, “####.#” )
Formats the number with one decimal place.
“1234.6”
Text( 8.9, “#.000” )
Pads the decimal portion of the number with trailing zeros, if needed.
“8.900”
Text( 0.631, “0.#” )
Pads the whole portion of the number with leading zeros, if needed.
“0.6”
Text( 12, “#.0#” )
Text( 1234.568, “#.0#” )
Pads the decimal portion of the number with zeros for one decimal place, and includes a second decimal place if supplied.
“12.0”
“1234.57”
Text( 12000, “$ #,###” )
Text( 1200000, “$ #,###” )
Places a thousands separator every three digits, and includes a currency symbol.
“$ 12,000”
“$ 1,200,000”
Date/Time
- At 2:37:47 PM on Monday, November 23, 2015
- United States Pacific Time Zone (UTC-8)
Formula
Description
Result
Text( Now(), DateTimeFormat.LongDate )
Formats as a long date string, in the language and locale of the current user.
“Monday, November 23, 2015”
Text( Now(), DateTimeFormat.LongDateTime )
Formats as a long date and time string, in the language and locale of the current user, using a 12-hour clock.
“Monday, November 23, 2015 2:37:47 PM”
Text( Now(), DateTimeFormat.LongTime24 )
Formats as a long time string, using a 24-hour clock.
“14:37:47”
Text( Now(), DateTimeFormat.ShortDate )
Formats as a short date string, in the language and locale of the current user.
“11/23/2015”
Text( Now(), “d-mmm-yy” )
Formats using placeholder characters:
- d for a single-digit or double-digit day of the month
- – as a literal character copied to the result
- mmm for a three-letter abbreviation of the month
- – as another literal character copied to the result
- yy for a two-digit abbreviation of the year
“23-Nov-15”
Global apps
Formula
Description
Result
Text( 1234567.89, “[$-en-US]$ #,###” )
Interprets , as a grouping separator placed every three characters and $ as the currency symbol. As no decimals are to be displayed, the value is rounded up to the next higher whole number. The [$-en-US] is optional in this case, as this is the default.
“$ 1,234,568”
Text( 1234567.89, “[$-es-ES]€ #,###” )
Interprets , as a decimal separator and € as the currency symbol. Because the [$-fr-FR] only determines how the format string is interpreted, the result will use the characters from the default “en-US” lanugage tag: . (period) for decimal separator and $ for currency symbol.
“$ 1234567.89”
Text( 1234567.89, “[$-es-ES]€ #,###”, “es-ES” )
Interprets , as a decimal separator. The result language tag has been set to “fr-FR” which will result in , (comma) being used as the decimal separator and € as the currency symbol.
“€ 1234567,89”
Text( Date(2016,1,31), “dddd mmmm d” )
Returns the weekday, month, and day of the month in the language of the current user. Because none of the placeholders are language dependent, there is no need for a format text language tag.
“Saturday January 31”
Text( Date(2016,1,31), “dddd mmmm d”, “es-ES” )
