getdate(3C)
NAME
getdate - convert user format date and time
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
struct tm *getdate(const char *string);
extern int getdate_err;
DESCRIPTION
The getdate() function converts user-definable date and/or
time specifications pointed to by string to a tm structure.
The tm structure is defined in the <time.h> header.
User-supplied templates are used to parse and interpret the
input string. The templates are text files created by the
user and identified via the environment variable DATEMSK.
Each line in the template represents an acceptable date
and/or time specification using conversion specifications
similar to those used by strftime(3C) and strptime(3C).
Dates before 1902 and after 2037 are illegal. The first line
in the template that matches the input specification is used
for interpretation and conversion into the internal time
format.
Conversion Specifications
The following conversion specifications are supported:
%% Same as %.
%a Locale's abbreviated weekday name.
%A Locale's full weekday name.
%b Locale's abbreviated month name.
%B Locale's full month name.
%c Locale's appropriate date and time representation.
%C Century number (the year divided by 100 and truncated
to an integer as a decimal number [1,99]); single
digits are preceded by 0; see standards(5). If used
without the %y specifier, this format specifier will
assume the current year offset in whichever century is
specified. The only valid years are between 1902-2037.
%d day of month [01,31]; leading zero is permitted but
not required.
%D Date as %m/%d/%y.
%e Same as %d.
%h Locale's abbreviated month name.
%H Hour (24-hour clock) [0,23]; leading zero is permitted
but not required.
%I Hour (12-hour clock) [1,12]; leading zero is permitted
but not required.
%j Day number of the year [1,366]; leading zeros are per-
mitted but not required.
%m Month number [1,12]; leading zero is permitted but not
required.
%M Minute [0,59]; leading zero is permitted but not
required.
%n Any white space.
%p Locale's equivalent of either a.m. or p.m.
%r Appropriate time representation in the 12-hour clock
format with %p.
%R Time as %H:%M.
%S Seconds [0,61]; leading zero is permitted but not
required. The range of values is [00,61] rather than
[00,59] to allow for the occasional leap second and
even more occasional double leap second.
%t Any white space.
%T Time as %H:%M:%S.
%U Week number of the year as a decimal number [0,53],
with Sunday as the first day of the week; leading zero
is permitted but not required.
%w Weekday as a decimal number [0,6], with 0 representing
Sunday.
%W Week number of the year as a decimal number [0,53],
with Monday as the first day of the week; leading zero
is permitted but not required.
%x Locale's appropriate date representation.
%X Locale's appropriate time representation.
%y Year within century. When a century is not otherwise
specified, values in the range 69-99 refer to years in
the twentieth century (1969 to 1999 inclusive); values
in the range 00-68 refer to years in the twenty-first
century (2000 to 2068 inclusive).
%Y Year, including the century (for example, 1993).
%Z Time zone name or no characters if no time zone
exists.
Modified Conversion Specifications
Some conversion specifications can be modified by the E and
O modifier characters to indicate that an alternative format
or specification should be used rather than the one normally
used by the unmodified specification. If the alternative
format or specification does not exist in the current
locale, the behavior be as if the unmodified conversion
specification were used.
%Ec Locale's alternative appropriate date and time
representation.
%EC Name of the base year (period) in the locale's alter-
native representation.
%Ex Locale's alternative date representation.
%EX Locale's alternative time representation.
%Ey Offset from %EC (year only) in the locale's alterna-
tive representation.
%EY Full alternative year representation.
%Od Day of the month using the locale's alternative
numeric symbols; leading zeros are permitted but not
required.
%Oe Same as %Od.
%OH Hour (24-hour clock) using the locale's alternative
numeric symbols.
%OI Hour (12-hour clock) using the locale's alternative
numeric symbols.
%Om Month using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
%OM Minutes using the locale's alternative numeric sym-
bols.
%OS Seconds using the locale's alternative numeric sym-
bols.
%OU Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of
the week) using the locale's alternative numeric sym-
bols.
%Ow Number of the weekday (Sunday=0) using the locale's
alternative numeric symbols.
%OW Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of
the week) using the locale's alternative numeric sym-
bols.
%Oy Year (offset from %C) in the locale's alternative
representation and using the locale's alternative
numeric symbols.
Internal Format Conversion
The following rules are applied for converting the input
specification into the internal format:
o If only the weekday is given, today is assumed if the
given day is equal to the current day and next week if
it is less.
o If only the month is given, the current month is
assumed if the given month is equal to the current
month and next year if it is less and no year is
given. (The first day of month is assumed if no day is
given.)
o If only the year is given, the values of the tm_mon,
tm_mday, tm_yday, tm_wday, and tm_isdst members of the
returned tm structure are not specified.
o If the century is given, but the year within the cen-
tury is not given, the current year within the century
is assumed.
o If no hour, minute, and second are given, the current
hour, minute, and second are assumed.
o If no date is given, today is assumed if the given
hour is greater than the current hour and tomorrow is
assumed if it is less.
General Specifications
A conversion specification that is an ordinary character is
executed by scanning the next character from the buffer. If
the character scanned from the buffer differs from the one
comprising the conversion specification, the specification
fails, and the differing and subsequent characters remain
unscanned.
A series of conversion specifications composed of %n, %t,
white space characters, or any combination is executed by
scanning up to the first character that is not white space
(which remains unscanned), or until no more characters can
be scanned.
Any other conversion specification is executed by scanning
characters until a character matching the next conversion
specification is scanned, or until no more characters can be
scanned. These characters, except the one matching the next
conversion specification, are then compared to the locale
values associated with the conversion specifier. If a match
is found, values for the appropriate tm structure members
are set to values corresponding to the locale information.
If no match is found, getdate() fails and no more characters
are scanned.
The month names, weekday names, era names, and alternative
numeric symbols can consist of any combination of upper and
lower case letters. The user can request that the input
date or time specification be in a specific language by set-
ting the LC_TIME category using setlocale(3C).
RETURN VALUES
If successful, getdate() returns a pointer to a tm struc-
ture; otherwise, it returns NULL and sets the global vari-
able getdate_err to indicate the error. Subsequent calls to
getdate() alter the contents of getdate_err.
The following is a complete list of the getdate_err set-
tings and their meanings:
1 The DATEMSK environment variable is null or undefined.
2 The template file cannot be opened for reading.
3 Failed to get file status information.
4 The template file is not a regular file.
5 An error is encountered while reading the template
file.
6 The malloc() function failed (not enough memory is
available).
7 There is no line in the template that matches the
input.
8 The input specification is invalid (for example,
February 31).
USAGE
The getdate() function makes explicit use of macros
described on the ctype(3C) manual page.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Examples of the getdate() function.
The following example shows the possible contents of a tem-
plate:
%m
%A %B %d %Y, %H:%M:%S
%A
%B
%m/%d/%y %I %p
%d,%m,%Y %H:%M
at %A the %dst of %B in %Y
run job at %I %p,%B %dnd
%A den %d. %B %Y %H.%M Uhr
The following are examples of valid input specifications for
the above template:
getdate("10/1/87 4 PM")
getdate("Friday")
getdate("Friday September 19 1987, 10:30:30")
getdate("24,9,1986 10:30")
getdate("at monday the 1st of december in 1986")
getdate("run job at 3 PM, december 2nd")
If the LANG environment variable is set to de (German), the
following is valid:
getdate("freitag den 10. oktober 1986 10.30 Uhr")
Local time and date specification are also supported. The
following examples show how local date and time specifica-
tion can be defined in the template.
____________________________________________________________
| Invocation | Line in Template |
| getdate("11/27/86") | %m/%d/%y |
| getdate("27.11.86") | %d.%m.%y |
| getdate("86-11-27") | %y-%m-%d |
| getdate("Friday 12:00:00") | %A %H:%M:%S |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
The following examples illustrate the Internal Format
Conversion rules. Assume that the current date is Mon Sep 22
12:19:47 EDT 1986 and the LANG environment variable is not
set.
_______________________________________________________________
| Input | Template Line | Date |
| Mon | %a | Mon Sep 22 12:19:48 EDT 1986|
| Sun | %a | Sun Sep 28 12:19:49 EDT 1986|
| Fri | %a | Fri Sep 26 12:19:49 EDT 1986|
| September | %B | Mon Sep 1 12:19:49 EDT 1986|
| January | %B | Thu Jan 1 12:19:49 EST 1987|
| December | %B | Mon Dec 1 12:19:49 EDT 1986|
| Sep Mon | %b %a | Mon Sep 1 12:19:50 EDT 1986|
| Jan Fri | %b %a | Fri Jan 2 12:19:50 EST 1987|
| Dec Mon | %b %a | Mon Dec 1 12:19:50 EST 1986|
| Jan Wed 1989 | %b %a %Y | Wed Jan 4 12:19:51 EST 1989|
| Fri 9 | %a %H | Fri Sep 26 09:00:00 EDT 1986|
| Feb 10:30 | %b %H:%S | Sun Feb 1 10:00:30 EST 1987|
| 10:30 | %H:%M | Tue Sep 23 10:30:00 EDT 1986|
| 13:30 | %H:%M | Mon Sep 22 13:30:00 EDT 1986|
|_______________|________________|_____________________________|
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| MT-Level | MT-Safe |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| CSI | Enabled |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
ctype(3C), mktime(3C), setlocale(3C), strftime(3C),
strptime(3C), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)
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