DATE

Display or change the date

Syntax

to display the date   
      DATE /T

to set the system date
      DATE
or
      DATE <date_today>

The output from DATE /T in the United States is "Mon 01/23/1997" but this is dependent on the country code.
The date formats for different country codes are as follows:

   Country or language   CountryCode  Date_format Time_format

   United States         001          01/23/1997  5:35:00.00p
   Czechoslovakia        042          23.01.1997 17:35:00 
   France                033          23.01.1997 17:35:00
   Germany               049          23.01.1997 17:35:00
   Latin America         003          23/01/1997  5:35:00.00p 
   International English 061          23/01/1997 17:35:00.00 
   Portugal              351          23-01-1997 17:35:00 
   Finland               358          23.1.1997  17.35.00
   Switzerland           041          23.01.97   17 35.00
   Norway                047          23.01.97   17:35:00 
   Belgium               032          23/01/97   17:35:00 
   Brazil                055          23/01/97   17:35:00 
   Italy                 039          23/01/97   17.35.00 
   United Kingdom        044          23/01/97   17:35:00.00 
   Denmark               045          23-01-97   17.35.00 
   Netherlands           031          23-01-97   17:35:00 
   Spain                 034          3/12/98    17:35:00 
   Hungary               036          1997.01.23 17:35:00 
   Canadian-French       002          1997-01-23 17:35:00 
   Poland                048          1997-01-23 17:35:00 
   Sweden                046          1997-01-23 17.35.00

Date Formatting

In Control Panel Regional settings a short date STYLE can be set. This can be used to change the date separator, the order (e.g. dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy) and the number of characters used to display days and months.

The ISO standard 8601 defines a date and time format that can be used internationally: YYYY-MM-DD this avoids the confusion that is often caused by differences in language and local custom.

Date Format information in the registry

The Country Code is a setting in the registry:

This can be read using REG.exe as follows

FOR /F "TOKENS=3 delims=	" %%G IN ('REG QUERY "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\iCountry"') DO (SET _country=%%G)

The date separator is also a registry setting

This can be read using REG.exe as follows

FOR /F "TOKENS=3 delims=	" %%G IN ('REG QUERY "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\sDate"') DO SET _date_sep=%%G

If Command Extensions are disabled DATE will not support the /T switch

“Carpe Diem - Seize the day” ~ Horace

Related:
%DATE% - variable containing current Date.
GetDate.cmd - Get todays Date (any region, any OS)
datetime.vbs - Get Date, Time and daylight savings (VB Script)
NOW - Display Message with Current Date and Time
NET TIME - Display the Date in US Format (mm-dd-yy)
REG - Read, Set or Delete registry keys and values
TIME - Display or set the system time
TOUCH - Change file timestamps
PowerShell: Set-ADUser -Country - Change a users Country Code and other settings.
PowerShell: Set-Date - Change the computer system time
Equivalent bash command (Linux): date - Display or change the date