Using time variables

You can use time variables to define date and time formats using the strftime() and strptime() evaluation functions.

There are variables that produce dates, variables that produce times, and variables that produce both dates and times.

Date and time variables

The following table lists variables that produce both a date and a time.

Variable	Description
`%c`	The date and time in the current locale's format as defined by the server's operating system. For example, `Mon Oct 3 14:45:00 2022` for US English on Linux.
`%+`	The date and time with time zone in the current locale's format as defined by the server's operating system. For example, `Mon Oct 3 14:45:00 PDT 2022` for US English on Linux.

The following table lists variables that produce a time.

Variable	Description
`%Ez`	Represents the timezone offset from UTC with a colon between hours and minutes. For example, `-08:00` indicates 8 hours behind UTC.
`%H`	Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number. Hours are represented by the values 00 to 23. Leading zeros are accepted but not required.
`%I`	Hour (12-hour clock) with the hours represented by the values 01 to 12. Leading zeros are accepted but not required.
`%k`	Like `%H`, the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number. Leading zeros are replaced by a space, for example, 0 to 23.
`%M`	Minute as a decimal number. Minutes are represented by the values 00 to 59. Leading zeros are accepted but not required.
`%N`	Represents the nanosecond component of the time
`%p`	AM or PM.
`%Q`	Represents the millisecond component of the time.
`%S`	Second as a decimal number, for example, 00 to 59.
`%s`	The Unix Epoch Time timestamp, or the number of seconds since the Epoch: 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC). (Example: 1609459200 is Fri Jan 1 00:00:00 2021)
`%T`	The time in 24-hour notation (`%H:%M:%S`). For example, 23:59:59.
`%X`	The time in the format for the current locale. For US English, the format for 9:30 AM is 9:30:00.
`%Z`	The timezone abbreviation. For example, PST for US Pacific Standard Time.
`%z`	The timezone offset from UTC, without a colon between hours and minutes: +hhmm or -hhmm. For example, for 8 hours behind UTC the value is -0800.
`%%`	A literal `%` character.

The following table lists variables that produce a date.

Variable	Description
`%F`	Equivalent to `%Y-%m-%d` (the ISO 8601 date format).
`%x`	The date in the format of the current locale. For example, `7/16/2024` for US English.

The following table lists variables that produce values for days and weeks.

Variable	Description
`%A`	Full weekday name. (e.g., Sunday, ..., Saturday)
`%a`	Abbreviated weekday name. (e.g., Sun, ..., Sat)
`%d`	Day of the month as a decimal number, including leading zeros. (e.g., 01 to 31)
`%e`	Like `%d`, the day of the month as a decimal number, but a leading zero is replaced by a space. (e.g., `1` to `31`)
`%j`	Day of the year as a decimal number, including leading zeros. (e.g., 001 to 366)
`%V`	Week of the year as a decimal number. (e.g., 1 to 52)
`%w`	Weekday as a decimal number. (0 = Sunday, ..., 6 = Saturday)

The following table lists variables that produce values for months.

Variable	Description
`%b`	Abbreviated month name. (e.g., Jan, Feb, etc.)
`%B`	Full month name. (e.g., January, February, etc.)
`%m`	Month as a decimal number. (e.g., 01 to 12). Leading zeros are accepted but not required.

The following table lists variables that produce values for years.

Variable	Description
`%y`	Year as a decimal number, without the century. (e.g., 00 to 99). Leading zeros are accepted but not required.
`%Y`	Year as a decimal number with century. For example, 2023.

The following table shows the results of various time format strings: