Visual Basic 2008 9.0 .NET Examples and Ebook

The Date datatype is used to represent a timestamp.

Dates ranging from "January 1 of the year 0001" ( "Gregorian calendar" ) to "December 31 of the year 9999" and time ranging from "12:00:00 AM (midnight)" to "11:59:59.9999999 PM".

"AM" stands for "Ante Meridiem" ( morning ), "PM" stands for "Post Meridiem" ( afternoon ).

The minimum difference between two Date values is 100 nanoseconds.

The minimum value to represent with Date is "12:00:00 AM (midnight), January 1 of the year 0001". The maximum value is 100 nanoseconds before "January 1 of the year 10000".

Module Example1
    Sub Main()
        ' Default & Minimum Value :
        ' January 1, 0001, 12:00:00 AM ( midnight ) :
        Dim someDate As Date
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' Maximum Literal Value :
        ' December 31, 9999, 11:59:59 PM ( 1 second before midnight ) :
        someDate = #12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' Minimum ( Literal ) Value :
        ' January 1, 0001, 12:00:00 AM ( midnight ) :
        someDate = #12:00:00 AM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2000, 12:00:00 AM ( midnight ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2000, 12:00:01 AM ( 1 seconde after midnight ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007 12:00:01 AM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2007, 1:00:00 AM ( 1 o'clock in the morning ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007 1:00:00 AM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2007, 11:59:59 AM ( 1 second before noon ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007 11:59:59 AM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2007, 12:00:00 PM ( noon ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007 12:00:00 PM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2007, 12:00:01 PM ( 1 second after noon ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007 12:00:01 PM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2007, 1:00:00 PM ( 1 o'clock in the afternoon ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007 1:00:00 PM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 17, 2007, 11:59:59 PM ( 1 second before midnight ) :
        someDate = #10/17/2007 11:59:59 PM#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        ' October 18, 2007, 12:00:00 AM ( midnight ) :
        someDate = #10/18/2007#
        Console.WriteLine(someDate)
        '
        Console.ReadLine()
    End Sub
End Module

Output :

 1/01/0001 0:00:00
 31/12/9999 23:59:59
 1/01/0001 0:00:00
 17/10/2007 0:00:00
 17/10/2007 0:00:01
 17/10/2007 1:00:00
 17/10/2007 11:59:59
 17/10/2007 12:00:00
 17/10/2007 12:00:01
 17/10/2007 13:00:00
 17/10/2007 23:59:59
 18/10/2007 0:00:00

A Date literal is formed using surrounding # symbols.

Date and time format : #M/D/YYYY H:MM:SS AM|PM# :
- M stands for Month ( 1 - 12 ), preferable in 1 digit, 2 digits if necessary
- D stands for Day ( 1 - 31 ), preferable in 1 digit, 2 digits if necessary
- YYYY stands for Year ( 1 - 9999 ), always 4 digits
- H stands for Hour ( 1 - 12 ), preferable in 1 digit, 2 digits if necessary
- MM stands for Minutes ( 0 - 59 ), always 2 digits
- SS stands for Seconds ( 0 - 59 ), always 2 digits

Only a date : #M/D/YYYY# :
- default time is #12:00:00 AM# ( midnight )

Only a time : #H:MM:SS AM|PM# :
- default date is #1/1/0001#