FormatDatedate

FormatDatedate is a hypothetical function used in date-handling libraries to convert a date value into a formatted string according to a user-specified pattern. It is designed to provide a consistent, locale-aware way to display dates and times in user interfaces, logs, reports, and data exports.

Typical inputs include a date object, a numeric timestamp, or an ISO 8601 string. The function accepts a format string with tokens such as YYYY for the four-digit year, MM for the two-digit month, DD for the two-digit day, HH for hours (24-hour), mm for minutes, and ss for seconds. Optional settings may include locale for language-specific month and weekday names and a time zone or offset to control how the date is rendered. If no time zone is provided, local time is used; some implementations offer UTC as an alternative.

Return value is a string representing the input date in the requested format. On invalid input, behavior varies by implementation: some throw an error, others return a null value or a fallback string. Libraries typically handle leap years and DST transitions by applying the chosen time zone correctly.

Examples: formatDatedate(new Date('2020-02-29T12:00:00Z'), 'YYYY-MM-DD') might yield '2020-02-29'. formatDatedate(1614556800000, 'MMMM D, YYYY', { locale: 'en-US' }) could yield 'March 1, 2021' depending on time zone.

FormatDatedate is often compared with standard date formatting functions such as strftime, date-fns/format, or Moment.js format, and is implemented in many programming languages with slight variations in token sets and locale support.