In SSRS what is the correct way to change a date from the standard "d" offered in the properties to a custom one?

Question

I have a date as shown in expression:

= Fields!last_sales_date.Value

will show: 04/16/2010

Applying standard date properties allows only a few ways to display this date. I don't want to use the system dates supplied.

What is the correct way to customize the display format to the following:

Want to show: 4/16/10

Using VS 2003

Answer 1

SSRS uses VB.net so you can use Format

Formatting Numbers and Dates (SSRS) which links to Custom Date and Time Format Strings. These are the same for all versions 2000-> 2008. I assume SSRS 2000 if using VS 2003.

So "M/d/yy" looks a good candidate

Answer 2

=FormatDateTime(Fields!last_sales_date.Value,2)

change the 2 to different values to get different formats

Answer 3

Pick your textbox goto properties and in the format property just add a .net format such as:

MM/dd/yy