All time functions take as an argument a time format string, which specifies the order the hours, minutes, and seconds appear in the time string and what the time separators are.
A time format string is composed of the following control characters:
| H | Represents a numeric hour. There can be from 2 to 5 H's in a time format string. |
| M | Represents a numeric minute. There can be 2 M's in a time format string. |
| S | Represents a numeric second. There can only be 2 S's in the string. |
| am | Indicates that a 12-hour clock should be used. "am" will be appended to the time string for times less than noon and "pm" for times after noon. Cannot be used for time format strings without H's (hours). |
Any character other than H, M, and S can be used as time separators between the day, month, and year components of the time.
Some possible time formats you could use and how the time half past one o'clock in the afternoon would be represented:
| HH:MM:SS | 13:30:00 |
| HH:MM | 13:30 |
| HH:MM am | 01:30 pm |
| MM:SS | 30:00 |
