Formatting PowerShell Get-Date inside string

Question

I can't get my head around how formatting a datetime variable inside a string works in PowerShell.

$startTime = Get-Date
Write-Host "The script was started $startTime"

# ...Do stuff...

$endTime = Get-Date
Write-Host "Done at $endTime.  Time for the full run was: $( New-TimeSpan $startTime $endTime)."

gives me the US date format while I want ISO 8601.

I could use

$(Get-Date -Format u)

but I want to use $endTime to make the calculation of the timespan correct.

I have tried all permutations of $, (, ), endTime, -format, u, .ToString(...) and .ToShortDate(), but the one that works.

Richard · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-22 09:57:20Z

75

"This is my string with date in specified format $($theDate.ToString('u'))"

or

"This is my string with date in specified format $(Get-Date -format 'u')"

The sub-expression ($(...)) can include arbitrary expressions calls.

Microsoft Documents both standard and custom DateTime format strings.

edited Feb 22, 2022 at 9:57

answered Apr 5, 2012 at 10:25

Richard

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1 Comment

Allen Over a year ago

To whit: Write-Output -NoEnumerate ( "The literal date is {0:d}" -f $([DateTime]::parseexact($theLiteralDate, 'yyyyMMdd', $null))); where the desired date format here is yyyy-mm-dd for the orignal date string literal 20180612. Use {0:u} for sortable ISO. The string travels through the world of DateTime and emerges back as a string in the right format. Bypassable? Frankly all of these are a bit of a PITA.

JPBlanc · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-05 12:20:16Z

You can use the -f operator

$a = "{0:D}" -f (get-date)
$a = "{0:dddd}" -f (get-date)

Spécificator    Type                                Example (with [datetime]::now)
d   Short date                                        26/09/2002
D   Long date                                       jeudi 26 septembre 2002
t   Short Hour                                      16:49
T   Long Hour                                       16:49:31
f   Date and hour                                   jeudi 26 septembre 2002 16:50
F   Long Date and hour                              jeudi 26 septembre 2002 16:50:51
g   Default Date                                    26/09/2002 16:52
G   Long default Date and hour                      26/09/2009 16:52:12
M   Month Symbol                                    26 septembre
r   Date string RFC1123                             Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:54:50 GMT
s   Sortable string date                            2009-09-26T16:55:58
u   Sortable string date universal local hour       2009-09-26 16:56:49Z
U   Sortable string date universal GMT hour         samedi 26 septembre 2009 14:57:22 (oups)
Y   Year symbol                                     septembre 2002

Spécificator    Type                       Example      Output Example
dd              Jour                       {0:dd}       10
ddd             Name of the day            {0:ddd}      Jeu.
dddd            Complet name of the day    {0:dddd}     Jeudi
f, ff, …        Fractions of seconds       {0:fff}      932
gg, …           position                   {0:gg}       ap. J.-C.
hh              Hour two digits            {0:hh}       10
HH              Hour two digits (24 hours) {0:HH}       22
mm              Minuts 00-59               {0:mm}       38
MM              Month 01-12                {0:MM}       12
MMM             Month shortcut             {0:MMM}      Sep.
MMMM            complet name of the month  {0:MMMM}     Septembre
ss              Seconds 00-59              {0:ss}       46
tt              AM or PM                   {0:tt}       ““
yy              Years, 2 digits            {0:yy}       02
yyyy            Years                      {0:yyyy}     2002
zz              Time zone, 2 digits        {0:zz}       +02
zzz             Complete Time zone         {0:zzz}      +02:00
:               Separator                  {0:hh:mm:ss}     10:43:20
/               Separator                  {0:dd/MM/yyyy}   10/12/2002

The MSDN pages for standard and custom format strings have plenty of examples, even in different languages :). +1 for suggesting format strings which is in my opinion preferrable here.
$a becomes a string, n'est-ce pas? I needed a real string object. The way to set the formatting first and then the value was new for me. Thanks.
Thanks @Joey, I just was not able to put my finger on these pages, so I copy paste one of my document.

Enrico Campidoglio · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-05 09:00:46Z

10

Instead of using string interpolation you could simply format the DateTime using the ToString("u") method and concatenate that with the rest of the string:

$startTime = Get-Date
Write-Host "The script was started " + $startTime.ToString("u")

answered Apr 5, 2012 at 9:00

Enrico Campidoglio

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1 Comment

LosManos Over a year ago

Valid solution. Lacks "string inside string" though. There is no /real/ reason for me to not concatenate instead of string-inside-string.

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