Escape codes and specials

Code Example
%% %
%t (tab)
%n (newline)

Numerics

Code Description Range
%Y Year 2020
%m Month 01..12
%H Hour (24h) 00..23
%I Hour (12h) 01..12
%S Seconds 00..60
%N Nanoseconds 000000000..999999999

Odd numerics

Code Description Range
%s Seconds since Unix epoch N/A
%j Day of the year 001..366
%d Day of the month 01
%u Day of the week (1 is Monday) 1..7
%u Week number of year (Sunday is the first week day) 00..53
%V ISO week number of year (Monday is the first week day) 01..53
%q Year quarter 1..4
%C Century 20
%y Last two digits of year 00..99

Spaced padded

Code Description Range Manual equivalent
%k Hour (24h) 0..23 %_H
%l Hour (12h) 1..12 %_I
%e Day of the month 01 %_d

Strings

Code Description Example
%a Abbreviated weekday Sun
%A Full weekday Sunday
%b / %h Abbreviated month Jan
%B Full month January
%p Locale’s AM/PM PM
%P Locale’s AM/PM (lowercase) pm
%Z Alphabetic time zone abbreviation EDT

Timezones

Code Description Example
%z +hhmm numeric time zone -0400
%:z +hh:mm numeric time zone -04:00
%::z +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone -04:00:00
%:::z numeric time zone with : to necessary precision -04, +05:30
%Z Alphabetic time zone abbreviation EDT

Templates

Code Description Example Manual equivalent
%c Locale’s date and time Thu Mar 3 23:05:25 2005 N/A
%x Locale’s date 12/31/99 N/A
%X Locale’s time 23:13:48 N/A
%r Locale’s time (12h) 11:11:04 PM N/A
%R 24h time 11:11 %H:%M
%T Time 11:11:04 %H:%M:%S
%D Date 12/19/20 %m/%d/%y