The PowerShell DateTime object has a built-in method that converts datetime to string. The ToString() method of the DateTime object converts a DateTime to a string representation. This method accepts arguments where you can specify the format of the string.
ToString() method allows you to specify the format for the string representation of a DateTime object., you can specify the datetime format like "ddMMyyyy"
, “dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss” etc…
In this article, we will discuss how to convert date to a string in PowerShell.
PowerShell Convert Date to String
In PowerShell to convert date to string, use the following script that uses the ToString() method of the DateTime object.
# Get the date $date = Get-Date # Convert the datetime to string $str = $date.ToString() # Print the string represention for the datetime object $str # Use the custom format to specify the datetime format $str = $date.ToString("ddMMyyyy") # Use the custom format to specify datetime format $str = $date.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss")
In the above PowerShell script, the Get-Date cmdlet in PowerShell gets the current date and stores it in the $date
variable. Using the ToString() method of the DateTime object, it converts a DateTime to a String in PowerShell.
Custom formats specified in the ToString() methods like "ddMMyyyy"
and "dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss"
convert date to string in PowerShell.
The output of the above POwerShell script to convert date to string is:

Another way to convert a datetime object to a string is by using the -f operator. The -f operator performs the string formatting as specified in {0:dd-MM-yyyy}
.
$str = '{0:dd-MM-yyyy}' -f (Get-Date '19-01-2023')
In the above PowerShell script, the Get-Date cmdlet gets the datetime object for the specified date and passes the datetime object to the -f operator, which uses the string format to convert the date to a string in PowerShell.
The output of the above PowerShell script is:
C:\$str = '{0:dd-MM-yyyy}' -f (Get-Date '19-01-2023')
PS C:\> $str
19-01-2023
Use ToShortDateString() to Convert Date to String in PowerShell
A DateTime object has ToShortDateString() method that converts a datetime object to a string in PowerShell.
# Get the date $date = Get-Date # Use ToShortDateString() to convert datetime to string $str = $date.ToShortDateString() # Print the string $str
In the above PowerShell script, the Get-Date cmdlet in PowerShell gets the current date and stores it in the $date
variable. Use the ToShortDateString() method of the DateTime object to convert the date into the string format.
The output of the above PowerShell script is:
PS C:\> $str = $date.ToShortDateString()
PS C:\> $str
03-02-2023
Cool Tip: How to convert string to date in PowerShell!
Conclusion
I hope the above article on how to convert datetime to string using DateTime methods like ToString(), ToShortDateString(), and -f operator is helpful to you.
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