datetime

Returns a datetime depending on some optional values.

This function does not generate a change.

Function

Interface Arguments Description
datetime() None Return a datetime with the current date/tine.
datetime(ts) int/float Return a datetime from a given UNIX time stamp.
datetime(str, [fmt]) str Return a datetime from a given string. See initialize from string for a details.
datetime(int, int, int, [int, [int, [int]]], [zone]) int, int,… str Return a datetime using values for individual time units, with optional time zone.

Initialize from string

The following formats will be understood by both the datetime(..) and timeval(..) functions without an explicit format:

Format Example Description
YYYY "2020" A datetime on the first of January at 00:00 in the given year using the time zone from the collection.
YYYY-mm "2020-09" A datetime at the first of a given month and year, at 00:00 using the time zone from the collection.
YYYY-mm-dd "2020-09-14" A datetime at the given date, at 00:00 using the time zone from the collection.
YYYY-mm-ddTHH "2020-09-14T20" A datetime at the given date, at HH:00 using the time zone from the collection.
YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM "2020-09-14T20:52" A datetime at the given date, at HH:MM using the time zone from the collection.
YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS "2020-09-14T20:52:28" A datetime using the time zone from the collection..
YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM:SSZ "2020-09-14T20:52:28Z" A datetime using the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS+-hh "2020-09-14T20:52:28+01" A datetime relative to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) with a given offset +hh or -hh.
YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS+-hhmm "2020-09-14T20:52:28+0100" A datetime with an offset relative to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

The T in the formats above is optional and may be replace with a space ( ).

Optionally, a second fmt argument may be given in which you may specify a custom format. The most important field descriptors for the formatter are listed below. In case a string (such as the name of a day of the week or a month name) is to be matched, the comparison is case insensitive. In case a number is to be matched, leading zeros are permitted but not required.

Specifier Description
%a / %A The name of the day, in abbreviated form or the full name.
%b / %B/ %h The month name, in abbreviated form or the full name.
%c The date and time representation, for example: Thu Dec 10 13:50:28 2020
%C The century number (0–99).
%d / %e The day of month (1–31).
%D Equivalent to %m/%d/%y (American style date).
%H The hour (0–23).
%I The hour on a 12-hour clock (1–12).
%j The day number in the year (1–366).
%m The month number (1–12).
%M The minute (0–59).
%n Arbitrary whitespace.
%p AM or PM.
%r The 12-hour clock time, for example: 12:00:00 AM
%R Equivalent to %H:%M.
%S The second (0–59).
%t Arbitrary whitespace.
%T Equivalent to %H:%M:%S.
%U The week number with Sunday the first day of the week (0–53). The first Sunday of January is the first day of week 1.
%w The ordinal number of the day of the week (0–6), with Sunday as 0.
%W The week number with Monday the first day of the week (0–53). The first Monday of January is the first day of week 1.
%y The year within century (0–99). When a century is not otherwise specified, values in the range 69–99 refer to years in the twentieth century, values in the range 00–68 refer to years in the twenty-first century.
%Y The year, including century (for example, 2013).

Example, creating a datetime object using a custom formatter:

datetime('2013 37', '%Y %j');  // day 37 in the year 2013

Return value in JSON format

"2013-02-06T00:00:00Z"

Return value

Returns a datetime object.

Example

This code shows a few examples for datetime():

[
    {datetime();                                    /* current time                 */ },
    {datetime(1607609782);                          /* Thu, 10 Dec 2020 14:16:22    */ },
    {datetime(2013, 2, 6, 12);                      /* Wed, 06 Feb 2013             */ },
    {datetime(2013, 2, 6, 13, 'Europe/Amsterdam');  /* with a time zone             */ },
    {datetime('1978-08-07T13:30:00Z');              /* Mon, 07 Aug 1978 13:30       */ },
    {datetime('12/10/2020', '%M/%s/%Y');            /* Thu, 10 Dec 2020             */ },
];

Return value in JSON format with the collection time zone configured as UTC:

[
    "2020-12-17T15:58:25Z",
    "2020-12-10T14:16:22Z",
    "2013-02-06T12:00:00Z",
    "2013-02-06T13:00:00+0100",
    "1978-08-07T13:30:00Z",
    "2020-01-01T00:00:10Z"
]