This lesson will explain how to set date and time and how to display current date and time in VB6 code. This lesson does not dive into depth but gives you the basic concept of date and time in Visual Basic 6.
In this lesson we’ll cover Date, Time, Now, Timer, and the Date data type. To learn more about formatting strings in a date format, see VB6 Tutorial 35: Formatting Functions.
Displaying current date and time
Using Date and Time properties, you can set or display the system’s current date and time respectively. The Time property displays both, current date and time.
QuickHint:
Date, Time and Now are not functions, they are properties.
Example
Displays current time
Print Time '12:53:12 PM
Displays current date
Print Date '04-09-2012
Displays current date and time
Print Now '04-09-2012 12:53:12 PM
Setting the system date and time
You can set the current date and time of your computer in Visual Basic code.
Example
On clicking the CommandButton, the system date and time are changed.
Private Sub cmdSetDateTime_Click()
Date = "04-10-2012"
Time = "02:38:00 PM"
End Sub
The Timer property
The Timer property returns the number of seconds elapsed since midnight.
Example
Private Sub cmdShow_Click()
MsgBox Timer & " seconds elapsed since midnight"
End Sub
Using the Date data type
Dim d As Date d = Now Print d
Declare a variable as Date, then you can assign any date value to this variable. The date data type lets you work with date-time values most efficiently.
Visual Basic gives you many properties and methods to handle date-time values. As we go through the rest of the lessons in this tutorial, each one will be covered along the way.