Custom date formats that you can display in Datawrapper
Once you've successfully uploaded your data using a correct date format, you can choose how the date appears on your chart. On the Refine tab of the Visualize step for many charts, you have the ability to choose from a drop-down menu of date/tick formats with the last option being "custom." Below is a table of the accepted custom date formats and how they will appear on your chart:
| Time Period | Token | Output |
| Month | M |
1 2 ... 11 12 |
| MM | 01 02 ... 11 12 | |
| MMM | Jan Feb ... Nov Dec | |
| MMMM | January February ... November December | |
| Quarter | Q | 1 2 3 4 |
| Day of Month | D | 1 2 ... 30 31 |
| DD | 01 02 ... 30 31 | |
| Day of Year | DDD | 1 2 ... 364 365 |
| DDDD | 001 002 ... 364 365 | |
| Day of Week | d | 0 1 ... 5 6 |
| dd | Su Mo ... Fr Sa | |
| ddd | Sun Mon ... Fri Sat | |
| dddd | Sunday Monday ... Friday Saturday | |
| Year | YY | 70 71 ... 19 20 |
| YYYY | 1970 1971 ... 2019 2020 | |
| AM/PM | A | AM PM |
| a | am pm | |
| Hour | H | 0 1 ... 22 23 |
| HH | 00 01 ... 22 23 | |
| h | 1 2 ... 11 12 | |
| hh | 01 02 ... 11 12 | |
| k | 1 2 ... 23 24 | |
| kk | 01 02 ... 23 24 |
|
| Minute | m | 0 1 ... 58 59 |
| mm | 00 01 ... 58 59 | |
| Second | s | 0 1 ... 58 59 |
| ss | 00 01 ... 58 59 | |
| Fractional Second | S | 0 1 ... 8 9 |
| SS | 00 01 ... 98 99 | |
| SSS | 000 001 ... 998 999 | |
| Time Zone | Z | -07:00 -06:00 ... +06:00 +07:00 |
| ZZ | -0700 -0600 ... +0600 +0700 | |
| Unix Timestamp | X | 1360013296 |
| Unix Millisecond Timestamp | x | 1360013296123 |
By combining different tokens, you can create a custom date format. You can also use punctuation marks (commas, dots, slashes, etc) between tokens, which will appear on the chart. Here is an example of using a custom date format and how it will appear in your chart:
Since MMM is the abbreviated month name and YYYY the full year, our result is something like "Jul, 2003" (the comma appears because it is written in the tick format text box). Here is how it appears on a chart:
Localized Formats
Because preferred formatting differs based on locale, there are a few tokens that can be used to format a moment based on its locale. All of these tokens are affected by the Output Locale, which can be changed in the Check and Describe step or the Design tab of the Visualize step. The US and Germany are featured in the chart below.
| Time Period | Token | Output (en-US) | Output (de-DE) |
| Time | LT | 8:30 PM | 20:30 |
| Month numeral, day of month, year | L | 01/30/2019 | 01.30.2019 |
| l (lowercase L) | 1/30/2019 | 1.30.2019 | |
| Month name, day of month, year | LL | January 30, 2019 | 30. Januar 2019 |
| ll | Jan 30, 2019 | 30. Jan 2019 | |
| Month name, day of month, year, time | LLL | January 30, 2019 8:30 PM | 30. Januar 2019 20:30 |
| lll | Jan 30, 2019 8:30 PM | 30. Jan 2019 20:30 | |
| Month name, day of month, day of week, year, time | LLLL | Wednesday, January 30, 2019 8:30 PM | Mittwoch, 30. Januar 2019 20:30 |
| llll | Wed, Jan 30, 2019 8:30 PM | Mi, 30. Jan 2019 20:30 |
Here is an example of how to use a localized format:
Using the example from before, if our Output Locale is set to English (en-US), the date will appear July 1, 2003. If the Output Locale is set to Deutsch (de-DE), the date will appear 1. Juli 2003.
For more information about working with dates and times in Datawrapper, see this article.