locale : string; the name of a locale to use

Dates (and Time objects) can be formatted to a string by using the VariantFormat( d, fmt ) command.

A string containing date information can be parsed to produce a corresponding Date object by using the VariantParse( s, fmt ) command.

The format string fmt is a string of free-form text with format conversion specifiers similar to those used by printf.

The format string fmt is optional.  Its default value is the string "%Y-%m-%dT%T".

A richer set of formatting and parsing specifiers are provided by Calendar[Format] and Calendar[Parse]. The VariantFormat and VariantParse commands are intended to be similar to the facilities provided by StringTools[FormatTime] and StringTools[ParseTime] commands.

Use the locale = loc option to control which locale formatting and parsing occurs in. The loc value should be a two-letter language code (E.g., "id" for Indonesian), optionally separated by an underscore character ("_") from a country variant indicates by using a two- or three-letter country code. (E.g., "fr_CA" for Canadian French.)

For some of the examples below to print correctly, you may need special fonts to be installed on your computer.

The following table details the supported format conversion specifiers.

$\mathrm{with}\left(\mathrm{Calendar}\right)\:$

$\mathrm{VariantFormat}\left(\mathrm{Today}\left(\right)\,''The\; day\; of\; the\; week\; is\; \%A''\right)$

$''The\; day\; of\; the\; week\; is\; Monday''$

$s≔\mathrm{VariantFormat}\left(\mathrm{Today}\left(\right)\right)$

$s≔''2025-03-24T10:09:50''$

$\mathrm{VariantParse}\left(s\right)$

$\mathrm{<Date:\; 2025-03-24T10:09:50\; GMT>}$

$\mathrm{seq}\left(\mathrm{printf}\left(''\%\%\%c\backslash t-\backslash t\%s\backslash n''\&comma;\mathrm{ch}\&comma;\mathrm{StringTools}:-\mathrm{Visible}\left(\mathrm{VariantFormat}\left(\mathrm{Today}\left(\right)\&comma;\mathrm{cat}\left(''\%''\&comma;\mathrm{ch}\right)\right)\right)\right)\&comma;\mathrm{ch}=''\%aAbBcDgGHIjmMnprRStTuUVwxXyYzZ''\right)$

%%    -    %
%a    -    Mon
%A    -    Monday
%b    -    Mar
%B    -    March
%c    -    Mon Mar 24 10:09:50 2025
%D    -    03/24/25
%g    -    25
%G    -    2025
%H    -    10
%I    -    10
%j    -    083
%m    -    03
%M    -    09
%n    -    \10
%p    -    AM
%r    -    10:09:50 AM
%R    -    10:09
%S    -    50
%t    -    \9
%T    -    10:09:50
%u    -    2
%U    -    13
%V    -    13
%w    -    2
%x    -    03/24/25
%X    -    10:09:50
%y    -    25
%Y    -    2025
%z    -    +0000
%Z    -    Etc/UTC

$\mathrm{VariantFormat}\left(\mathrm{Today}\left(\right)\&comma;''\%c''\&comma;'\mathrm{locale}'=''ja''\right)$

$''月\; 3月\; 24\; 10:09:50\; 2025''$

$s≔\mathrm{VariantFormat}\left(\mathrm{Today}\left(\right)\&comma;''\%c''\&comma;'\mathrm{locale}'=''de''\right)$

$s≔''Mo.\; März\; 24\; 10:09:50\; 2025''$

$\mathrm{VariantParse}\left(s\&comma;''\%c''\&comma;'\mathrm{locale}'=''de''\right)$

$\mathrm{<Date:\; 2025-03-24T10:09:50\; GMT>}$

ISO 639.2

The Calendar[VariantFormat] and Calendar[VariantParse] commands were introduced in Maple 2019.

For more information on Maple 2019 changes, see Updates in Maple 2019.