# Build version format customization

**URL:** https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/build-version-format-customization/5635
**Category:** Discussion
**Created:** [July 26, 2018, 6:30am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/build-version-format-customization/5635 "2018-07-26T06:30:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![lysaer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cc9497/32.png) [@lysaer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/lysaer)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2018, 6:30am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/build-version-format-customization/5635/1 "2018-07-26T06:30:46Z")

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Is it possible to customize the build version number further than X.X.$Build.BuildNumber$? The configuration page says that the version format string can contain expressions, so I think the answer is yes, but there's no drop down to search expressions.

I would like to use a format similar to ABC.YYYYMMDD.$Build.BuildNumber$ as this is what we manually derive for our documentation, but as we implement Continua it would be better if the logs/build history matched. ABC would be plain text, while YYYMMDD is year/month/day.

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### Author: ![Sparky](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/sparky/32/10_2.png) [@Sparky](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/Sparky)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2018, 2:17am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/build-version-format-customization/5635/2 "2018-07-27T02:17:10Z")

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Hi Andy,

Which version of Continua CI are you using? There is a "suggestion" dropdown on the Version Format String text box in the latest version.

 ![](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/uploads/default/original/2X/e/ec73588bbb57e7febbe3b506c8eeda56e746e978.png)

You can get the format you're looking for as follows.

ABC.$Server.Now.Format("yyyymmdd")$.$Build.BuildNumber$

Note that the expressions available here are limited as the version is applied at the start of the build. The [Set Build Version Action](https://wiki.finalbuilder.com/x/bQMZ) allows you to modify the version during the build. You can also update the build version by writing [Custom Log Messages](https://wiki.finalbuilder.com/x/BoBU) from any Execution action that can write to standard output.

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### Author: ![lysaer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/cc9497/32.png) [@lysaer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/lysaer)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2018, 10:02am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/build-version-format-customization/5635/3 "2018-08-03T10:02:10Z")

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Thanks! Are the Expressions available documented anywhere?

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### Author: ![Sparky](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/sparky/32/10_2.png) [@Sparky](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/Sparky)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2018, 11:32am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/build-version-format-customization/5635/4 "2018-08-05T11:32:25Z")

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See [Expression Objects](https://wiki.finalbuilder.com/display/continua/Expression+Objects) for the (almost) full list of expressions available thoughout Continua CI. We don't have a list of which expressions are available for each field type, but that can be determined from the autocomplete dropdown.