The FORMAT$ function uses the date separator as defined by the current
country setting in MS-DOS. In the USA, that means it uses the dash or
hyphen character (-) when printing dates instead of the forward slash '/'.
When printing date information, the FORMAT$ function replaces the slash '/'
with the current country setting for the date separator. In the USA, the
default MS-DOS date separator is the dash (-). Here's an example:
PRINT FORMAT$(NOW, "mm/dd/yy") ' prints 06-23-93
You can force FORMAT$ to use the slash (/) by preceding it with a
backslash (\). Here's an example:
PRINT FORMAT$(NOW, "mm\/dd\/yy") ' prints 06/23/93
The Visual Basic for MS-DOS Help file topic 'Sample Date and Time Formats'
shows the following example, which is incorrect for the USA:
FORMAT$ Expression Display ' Will Display
------------------ ------------- ' -------------
m/d/yy 12/7/58 ' 12-7-58
m/d/yy h:mm 12/7/58 20:50 ' 12-7-58 20:50
To display the expected date format, use the backslash (\) in conjunction
with the forward slash (/). The backslash is an operator that displays the
next character in a format string.
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