FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT

Overview

The FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT environment variable lets you specify a custom format string for converting date values to strings in the output. When not set, FastBCP uses the default yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:sszzz.

The format string follows .NET standard and custom date/time format patterns.

Syntax

Windows

$env:FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT = "yyyyMMdd"

Linux/macOS

export FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT=yyyyMMdd

Configuration

Property	Value
Type	Format string
Default	yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:sszzz
Applies to	All output formats that serialize date columns as strings (CSV, JSON, etc.)
Since	FastBCP 1.0

Auto-adaptive formatting

The date format is auto-adaptive based on the column type:

• Date-only columns will always output as yyyy-MM-dd regardless of the format string
• Timestamp/DateTime columns will output as yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss even if a timezone token (zzz) is present in the format string
• DateTimeOffset columns will include the timezone offset as specified

Format Examples

Format string	Example output
yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:sszzz (default)	2026-06-28 14:30:22+02:00
yyyy-MM-dd	2026-06-28
yyyyMMdd	20260628
dd/MM/yyyy	28/06/2026
MM-dd-yyyy	06-28-2026
yyyy/MM/dd	2026/06/28
yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss	2026-06-28 14:30:22

Examples

Compact date format — no separators (PowerShell)

$env:FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT = "yyyyMMdd"

fastbcp -S myserver.database.windows.net `
    -d MyDatabase `
    -T dbo.MyTable `
    --fileoutput "output.csv"

Output column value: 20260628

Compact date format — no separators (Linux/macOS)

export FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT=yyyyMMdd

fastbcp -S myserver.database.windows.net \
    -d MyDatabase \
    -T dbo.MyTable \
    --fileoutput "output.csv"

Output column value: 20260628

Restore default ISO 8601 format

Windows

Remove-Item Env:FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT

Linux/macOS

unset FASTBCP_DATEFORMAT