how to display a Date field in vusualforce page?

Question

I have a custom Date field.

I want to display this on a visualforce page.

I tried to display it like this but the date is not showing:

<tr>
    <td>
        <apex:outputField value=" {!myobject.testDate__c}"/>
    </td>
</tr>

or like this

<tr>
    <td>
        {!myobject.testDate__c} 
    </td>
</tr>

or like this

<tr>
    <td>
        <apex:outputtext value="{0, date, short}">
            <apex:param value="{!myobject.testDate__c}"></apex:param>
        </apex:outputtext>
    </td>
</tr>

but none of the above would display me the date.

I can confirm that I do see the testDate__c object display the date in my page layout.

Can someone please help me as to why I don't see the date display? Thanks

Answer 1

There shouldn't be any issues using outputField. If you can't see the value I can only think of two reasons:

• 1 - The value is not set on your object;
• 2 - You don't have permission to view the field;

Also, there's another syntax that you can use to display the date:

<apex:outputText value="{0, date,dd MMM yyyy}">
    <apex:param value="{!obj.DateField__c}"/>
</apex:outputText>

Answer 2

when using outputField - it should display as a date if you have a value - it will be blank if null. Otherwise,

<apex:outputText value="{0, DATE, MM'/'dd'/'yyyy}">
    <apex:param value="{!MyObject__c.Date_Field__c}" />
</apex:outputText>

with the above you can pass a date from the back end or a date from the field - so if you create for example:

  public Date today = System.today();

in your controller - you can display that date using the above like so:

<apex:outputText value="{0, DATE, MM'/'dd'/'yyyy}">
    <apex:param value="{!today}" />
</apex:outputText>

OR format as this:

 <apex:outputText value="{0, DATE, yyyy'-'MM'-'dd}">
    <apex:param value="{!today}" />
 </apex:outputText>