Date & Time Format Directives

These directives are commonly used in tools like date, logging systems, and programming languages to format timestamps.

Directives

Directive	Represents	Example
`%Y`	4-digit year	`2026`
`%m`	Month	`01-12`
`%d`	Day of month	`01-31`
`%H`	Hour (24-hour format)	`00-23`
`%M`	Minute	`00-59`
`%S`	Second	`00-59`

Example Format

%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S

Example output:

2026-03-06 14:25:10

Example in Shell

date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"

Output:

2026-03-06 14:25:10

Example for File Names

backup-%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S.sql

Example result:

backup-2026-03-06-14-25-10.sql

Common Patterns

Pattern	Example	Use
`%Y-%m-%d`	`2026-03-06`	Date only
`%Y%m%d`	`20260306`	Compact date
`%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S`	`2026-03-06 14:25:10`	Logs
`%Y%m%d-%H%M%S`	`20260306-142510`	Filenames