Show "empty" TDateTimePicker

Question

How can I show an "empty" TDateTimePicker in Delphi 2010 (that is, hide the display of the date so the control appears empty). I know about the trick of setting the format to show the epoch, but with Delphi 2010 running on Windows 7 the string "A.D." appears in the control when I do this.

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 20 '10 at 19:20

19

try setting the format to a blank space Value.

DateTimePicker1.Format:=' ';

and then in the OnChange method set the format again

procedure TForm1.DateTimePicker1Change(Sender: TObject);
begin
DateTimePicker1.Format:=ShortDateFormat;
end;

answered Nov 20 '10 at 19:20

RRUZ

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Thanks, this works perfectly. I use the single space to suppress any display and an empty string (no space) to set it back to the default format. – Larry Lustig Nov 20 '10 at 19:28
7

Does that still work for allowing the user to enter a date with the keyboard? – Rob Kennedy Nov 21 '10 at 07:06

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 05 '12 at 22:12

2

You could also try:

DateTimePicker1.Format := '__/__/____';

That way it looks to the end user like a date is required.

edited Jul 05 '12 at 22:12

Andriy M

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answered Jul 03 '12 at 09:07

Len Phillips

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 05 '16 at 09:51

I came across this question when looking to see how to handle this.

I'm actually using a TJvDateTimePicker primarily because it displays week numbers in the drop down. I was going to use the 'format trick' suggested by @RRUZ, but have found that the TJvDateTimePicker includes a couple of extra published properties, NullDate and NullText which are used to implement the "format trick".

In my form's constructor I place the code:

dtpOne.NullDate := 0;
dtpOne.NullText := ' '; // empty string doesn't work

All seems to work as you'd expect.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 14 '21 at 17:38

0

In Delphi 10 the way to enable the TDateTimePicker again is:

DateTimePicker1.format := EmptyStr;

The ShortDateFormat is no more present in system.SysUtils

answered Jan 14 '21 at 17:38

Franz Andreani

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`ShortDateFormat` together with other format settings were earlier (e.g. Delphi 7) global variables in the `SysUtils` unit. Now they are fields of a global `TFormatSettings` record, called `FormatSettings`. IOW, to use the globally declared `ShortDateFormat` you must write `FormatSettings.ShortDateFormat`. – Tom Brunberg Feb 27 '22 at 07:41

Show "empty" TDateTimePicker

4 Answers4