1getdate(3C)              Standard C Library Functions              getdate(3C)
2
3
4

NAME

6       getdate - convert user format date and time
7

SYNOPSIS

9       #include <time.h>
10
11       struct tm *getdate(const char *string);
12       extern int getdate_err;
13
14

DESCRIPTION

16       The  getdate() function converts user-definable date and/or time speci‐
17       fications pointed to by string to a tm structure. The tm  structure  is
18       defined in the <time.h> header.
19
20
21       User-supplied  templates  are  used  to  parse  and interpret the input
22       string.  The templates are  text files created by the user and  identi‐
23       fied  via  the  environment variable DATEMSK. Each line in the template
24       represents an acceptable date and/or time specification using   conver‐
25       sion  specifications  similar  to  those used by strftime(3C) and strp‐
26       time(3C). Dates before 1902 and after 2037 are illegal. The first  line
27       in the template that matches the input specification is used for inter‐
28       pretation and conversion into  the internal time format.
29
30   Conversion Specifications
31       The following conversion specifications are supported:
32
33       %%    Same as %.
34
35
36       %a    Locale's abbreviated weekday name.
37
38
39       %A    Locale's full weekday name.
40
41
42       %b    Locale's abbreviated month name.
43
44
45       %B    Locale's full month name.
46
47
48       %c    Locale's appropriate date and time representation.
49
50
51       %C    Century number (the year divided by 100 and truncated to an inte‐
52             ger as a decimal number [1,99]); single digits are preceded by 0;
53             see standards(5). If used without the %y specifier,  this  format
54             specifier  will  assume the current year offset in whichever cen‐
55             tury is specified. The only valid years are between 1902-2037.
56
57
58       %d    day of month [01,31]; leading zero is permitted but not required.
59
60
61       %D    Date as %m/%d/%y.
62
63
64       %e    Same as %d.
65
66
67       %h    Locale's abbreviated month name.
68
69
70       %H    Hour (24-hour clock) [0,23]; leading zero is  permitted  but  not
71             required.
72
73
74       %I    Hour  (12-hour  clock)  [1,12]; leading zero is permitted but not
75             required.
76
77
78       %j    Day number of the year [1,366]; leading zeros are  permitted  but
79             not required.
80
81
82       %m    Month number [1,12]; leading zero is permitted but not required.
83
84
85       %M    Minute [0,59]; leading zero is permitted but not required.
86
87
88       %n    Any white space.
89
90
91       %p    Locale's equivalent of either a.m. or p.m.
92
93
94       %r    Appropriate  time representation in the 12-hour clock format with
95             %p.
96
97
98       %R    Time as %H:%M.
99
100
101   SUSv3
102       %S    Seconds [0,60]; leading zero is permitted but not  required.  The
103             range  of values  is [00,60] rather than [00,59] to allow for the
104             occasional leap second.
105
106
107   Default and other standards
108       %S    Seconds [0,61]; leading zero is permitted but not  required.  The
109             range  of values  is [00,61] rather than [00,59] to allow for the
110             occasional leap second and even more occasional double leap  sec‐
111             ond.
112
113
114       %t    Any white space.
115
116
117       %T    Time as %H:%M:%S.
118
119
120       %U    Week  number  of the year as a decimal number [0,53], with Sunday
121             as the first day of the week; leading zero is permitted  but  not
122             required.
123
124
125       %w    Weekday as a decimal number [0,6], with 0 representing Sunday.
126
127
128       %W    Week  number  of the year as a decimal number [0,53], with Monday
129             as the first day of the week; leading zero is permitted  but  not
130             required.
131
132
133       %x    Locale's appropriate date representation.
134
135
136       %X    Locale's appropriate time representation.
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138
139       %y    Year  within  century. When a century is not otherwise specified,
140             values in the range 69-99 refer to years in the twentieth century
141             (1969  to  1999  inclusive);  values  in the range 00-68 refer to
142             years in the twenty-first century (2000 to 2068 inclusive).
143
144
145       %Y    Year, including the century (for example, 1993).
146
147
148       %Z    Time zone name or no characters if no time zone exists.
149
150
151   Modified Conversion Specifications
152       Some conversion specifications can be modified by the E and O  modifier
153       characters  to  indicate  that  an  alternative format or specification
154       should be used rather than the one  normally  used  by  the  unmodified
155       specification.  If  the  alternative  format  or specification does not
156       exist in the current locale,  the behavior  be  as  if  the  unmodified
157       conversion specification were used.
158
159       %Ec    Locale's alternative appropriate date and time representation.
160
161
162       %EC    Name  of the base year (period) in the locale's alternative rep‐
163              resentation.
164
165
166       %Ex    Locale's alternative date representation.
167
168
169       %EX    Locale's alternative time representation.
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171
172       %Ey    Offset from %EC (year only) in the locale's  alternative  repre‐
173              sentation.
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175
176       %EY    Full alternative year representation.
177
178
179       %Od    Day  of  the  month using the locale's alternative  numeric sym‐
180              bols; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
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182
183       %Oe    Same as %Od.
184
185
186       %OH    Hour (24-hour clock) using the locale's alternative numeric sym‐
187              bols.
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189
190       %OI    Hour (12-hour clock) using the locale's alternative numeric sym‐
191              bols.
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193
194       %Om    Month using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
195
196
197       %OM    Minutes using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
198
199
200       %OS    Seconds using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
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202
203       %OU    Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day  of  the  week)
204              using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
205
206
207       %Ow    Number of the weekday (Sunday=0) using the  locale's alternative
208              numeric symbols.
209
210
211       %OW    Week number of the year (Monday as the first day  of  the  week)
212              using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
213
214
215       %Oy    Year  (offset  from %C) in the locale's alternative  representa‐
216              tion and using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
217
218
219   Internal Format Conversion
220       The following rules are applied for converting the input  specification
221       into the internal format:
222
223           o      If  only the weekday is given, today is assumed if the given
224                  day is equal to the current day and next week if it is less.
225
226           o      If only the month is given, the current month is assumed  if
227                  the  given month is equal to the current month and next year
228                  if it is less and no year is given. (The first day of  month
229                  is assumed if no day is given.)
230
231           o      If  only  the  year  is  given,  the  values  of the tm_mon,
232                  tm_mday, tm_yday,  tm_wday,  and  tm_isdst  members  of  the
233                  returned tm structure are not specified.
234
235           o      If  the century is given, but the year within the century is
236                  not given, the current year within the century is assumed.
237
238           o      If no hour, minute, and second are given, the current  hour,
239                  minute, and second are assumed.
240
241           o      If  no  date is given, today is assumed if the given hour is
242                  greater than the current hour and tomorrow is assumed if  it
243                  is less.
244
245   General Specifications
246       A conversion specification that is an ordinary character is executed by
247       scanning the next character from the buffer. If the  character  scanned
248       from the buffer differs from the one comprising the conversion specifi‐
249       cation, the specification fails, and the differing and subsequent char‐
250       acters remain unscanned.
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252
253       A  series  of conversion specifications composed of %n, %t, white space
254       characters, or any combination is executed by scanning up to the  first
255       character  that  is not white space (which remains unscanned), or until
256       no more characters can be scanned.
257
258
259       Any other conversion specification is executed by  scanning  characters
260       until  a  character  matching  the  next  conversion  specification  is
261       scanned, or until no more characters can be scanned.  These characters,
262       except  the  one  matching  the next conversion specification, are then
263       compared to the locale values associated with the conversion specifier.
264       If  a  match  is found, values for the appropriate tm structure members
265       are set to values corresponding to the locale information. If no  match
266       is found, getdate() fails and no more characters are scanned.
267
268
269       The month names, weekday names, era names, and alternative numeric sym‐
270       bols can consist of any combination of upper and  lower  case  letters.
271       The  user can request that the input date or time specification be in a
272       specific language by setting the LC_TIME category using setlocale(3C).
273

RETURN VALUES

275       If successful, getdate() returns a pointer to a  tm  structure;  other‐
276       wise, it returns NULL and sets the global variable getdate_err to indi‐
277       cate the error. Subsequent calls to getdate()  alter  the  contents  of
278       getdate_err.
279
280
281       The following is a complete list of the  getdate_err settings and their
282       meanings:
283
284       1    The DATEMSK environment variable is null or undefined.
285
286
287       2    The template file cannot be opened for reading.
288
289
290       3    Failed to get file status information.
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292
293       4    The template file is not a regular file.
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295
296       5    An error is encountered while reading the template file.
297
298
299       6    The malloc() function failed (not enough memory is available).
300
301
302       7    There is no line in the template that matches the input.
303
304
305       8    The input specification is invalid (for example, February 31).
306
307

USAGE

309       The getdate() function makes explicit use of macros  described  on  the
310       ctype(3C) manual page.
311

EXAMPLES

313       Example 1 Examples of the getdate() function.
314
315
316       The following example shows the possible contents of a template:
317
318
319         %m
320         %A %B %d %Y, %H:%M:%S
321         %A
322         %B
323         %m/%d/%y %I %p
324         %d,%m,%Y %H:%M
325         at %A the %dst of %B in %Y
326         run job at %I %p,%B %dnd
327         %A den %d. %B %Y %H.%M Uhr
328
329
330
331       The  following are examples of valid input specifications for the above
332       template:
333
334
335         getdate("10/1/87 4 PM")
336         getdate("Friday")
337         getdate("Friday September 19 1987, 10:30:30")
338         getdate("24,9,1986 10:30")
339         getdate("at monday the 1st of december in 1986")
340         getdate("run job at 3 PM, december 2nd")
341
342
343
344       If the LANG environment variable is set to  de (German), the  following
345       is valid:
346
347
348         getdate("freitag den 10. oktober 1986 10.30 Uhr")
349
350
351
352       Local  time  and  date  specification are also supported. The following
353       examples show how local date and time specification can be  defined  in
354       the template.
355
356
357
358
359
360       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
361       │Invocation                   │Line in Template             │
362       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
363       │getdate("11/27/86")          │%m/%d/%y                     │
364       │getdate("27.11.86")          │%d.%m.%y                     │
365       │getdate("86-11-27")          │%y-%m-%d                     │
366       │getdate("Friday 12:00:00")   │%A %H:%M:%S                  │
367       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
368
369
370       The following examples illustrate the Internal Format Conversion rules.
371       Assume that the current date is Mon Sep 22 12:19:47 EDT  1986  and  the
372       LANG environment variable is not set.
373
374
375
376
377
378       ┌───────────────┬────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
379       │Input          │Template Line   │Date                         │
380       ├───────────────┼────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
381Mon            %a              │Mon Sep 22 12:19:48 EDT 1986 │
382Sun            %a              │Sun Sep 28 12:19:49 EDT 1986 │
383Fri            %a              │Fri Sep 26 12:19:49 EDT 1986 │
384September      %B              │Mon Sep  1 12:19:49 EDT 1986 │
385January        %B              │Thu Jan  1 12:19:49 EST 1987 │
386December       %B              │Mon Dec  1 12:19:49 EDT 1986 │
387Sep Mon        %b %a           │Mon Sep  1 12:19:50 EDT 1986 │
388Jan Fri        %b %a           │Fri Jan  2 12:19:50 EST 1987 │
389Dec Mon        %b %a           │Mon Dec  1 12:19:50 EST 1986 │
390Jan Wed 1989   %b %a %Y        │Wed Jan  4 12:19:51 EST 1989 │
391Fri 9          %a %H           │Fri Sep 26 09:00:00 EDT 1986 │
392Feb 10:30      %b %H:%S        │Sun Feb  1 10:00:30 EST 1987 │
39310:30          %H:%M           │Tue Sep 23 10:30:00 EDT 1986 │
39413:30          %H:%M           │Mon Sep 22 13:30:00 EDT 1986 │
395       └───────────────┴────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
396

ATTRIBUTES

398       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
399
400
401
402
403       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
404       │ATTRIBUTE TYPE               │ATTRIBUTE VALUE              │
405       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
406       │CSI                          │Enabled                      │
407       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
408       │Interface Stability          │Standard                     │
409       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
410       │MT-Level                     │MT-Safe                      │
411       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
412

SEE ALSO

414       ctype(3C),   mktime(3C),   setlocale(3C),  strftime(3C),  strptime(3C),
415       attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)
416
417
418
419SunOS 5.11                        1 Nov 2003                       getdate(3C)
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