Set site locale to display correct date format in date/time field

Question

The date field is displaying dates in US format (mm/dd/yyyy) but I need the UK (dd/mm/yyyy) format. According to the docs:

Dates and times are both formatted for the user’s preferred locale. They are displayed in the site’s timezone, however they get stored in UTC like all other dates in Craft.

How does one set this? The timezone is set correctly in the site config.

Answer 1

Dates and times are both formatted for the user’s preferred locale.

You have to select your "preferred locale" when installing Craft. If you chose the wrong one you (currently) can't undo it from the CP, but have to change it directly in the database (--> "craft_locales" table).

Another way would be to install a second locale (even if you don't need it at all). Because if your Craft site is multilingual you can switch between installed locales from the user settings in the CP though.

Answer 2

You can see the specifics, albeit a bit tedious to browse one locale at a time, https://icu4c-demos.unicode.org/icu-bin/locexp, as to which each locale will display.

E.g. if one wished to have dates expressed YYYY-MM-DD (q.v. ISO 8601) you can browse each English language locale until you discovered that South Africa (en-ZA) does it this way.

Unfortunately, you then have to move to South Africa, of course, which can be rather expensive if you don't already live nearby. Small price to pay for having your dates expressed properly, however.