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Create a date and time stamp in your batch files
by Steve Wiseman on February 16, 2007 42 comments
in Windows
Here is an interesting one. I found a way to take the %date% environment variable,
and turn it into a valid string for a filename without any extra programs or scripts.
For the longest time I used a little utility I created to do this. The problem with that is
the utility needs to be around if you want to send the batch file to someone.
What I didnt know that was that you can use this character combination :~ to pull a
substring out of an environment variable. That is when I realized you could use this to
pull out parts of the current date (or time).
Here is how it works. Lets take the %date% variable and print it out
echo %date%
It comes back At least today .. with
Thu 02/15/2007
Not sure if the length of the day changes. It may be always the same. To be safe we
can pull the year, month and day starting from the right.
The :~ substring command works like this:
:~[START POS],[LENGTH]
If [START_POS] is positive or zero the substring will start from the left. If the number
[START_POS] is negative it will start from the right. And [LENGTH] is the number of
characters in the opposite direction of the starting point.
I know this might be confusing at first, but you will see what I am talking about.
If we wanted to get the current year we could start 4 from the end, and 4 in length.
Like this:
echo %date:~-4,4%
For the month we start 7 from the right (Length of Year + Length of Month + 1 Slash)
echo %date:~-7,2%
For the day we start 10 from the right (Length of Year + Length of Month + Length Of
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Day + 2 Slashes)
echo %date:~-10,2%
Bringing it all together. Lets say I zipped up a folder every night for archival
purposes, and wanted a different filename for each day (Not sure if this pkzip syntax
is correct, but that is not important for our discussion here)
pkzip c:\ImportantFolder\*.* c:\TempZip.zip
ren C:\TempZip.Zip c:\TempZip_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%.zip
Which renames our C:\TempZip.Zip to C:\TempZip_20070215.zip
Perfect. I get a date stamped file, and no special vbscript, or command line program
is needed.
The same method could be used for the current time
I am still amazed this little trick works.
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{ 1 trackback }
Date and time stamp in your batch files
November 11, 2009 at 3:23 pm
{ 41 comments read them below or add one }
1 John October 14, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Great!!
Working Fine..
2 date *and* time October 28, 2009 at 9:11 am
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heres the and time bit:
I know it might sound obvious, but
.for time, use environment variable %time%
3 Steve Wiseman October 28, 2009 at 9:34 am
Good point. Title did not match my article. You can use the same principals
with the time variable, and include hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds.
Here they are:
Milliseconds: %time:~-2,2%
Seconds: %time:~-5,2%
Minutes: %time:~-8,2%
Hours: %time:~-11,2%
4 Lizzy November 2, 2009 at 1:10 am
Hi,
Thanks, These are very helpful tips.
The problen is that when retrieving the hour from the current time variable,
it appears with a leading space (instead of leading zero), when the hour is less
than 10.
Any idea to solve it?
Lizzy
5 Steve Wiseman November 2, 2009 at 8:23 am
Here is the way to trim it:
SET HOUR=%time:~-11,2%
Call :TRIM %HOUR%
GOTO :EOF
:TRIM
Set HOUR=%*
:EOF
REM You would use your trimmed hour right here
@echo %HOUR%
6 Jim November 12, 2009 at 3:51 pm
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fyi: the below line should be changed
from this:
DATESTMP=%date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%%HOUR% SET
swap 10,2 and 8,2 (date to be y/m/d)
insert :TRIM (else blank between hour and rest (m/s_DATA.ZIP)
to this: DATESTMP=%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%%HOUR%
:TRIM SET
Great concept. thanks.
7 Steve Wiseman November 12, 2009 at 7:22 pm
What format is your date in DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYYwhen you echo
%date% at the command line?
Thanks.
8 bryan December 28, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Hi Guys,
i am newbie in the Batch file creation and hoping you guys can help and guide
me on the following:-
i wanted to created a batch file to :-
1st zip a folder containing a txt files
2nd the batch file shall ignore the current date folder
3rd the batch shall be executed on 1200am daily.
4th the zipped folder name should retained
5th once the folder has been zipped, it will be move to a dedicated folder (to
another HDD or even to a network folder)
By the way, i am using power archiver 2001.
Thank you in advance..
bryan
9 Israel Torres August 19, 2010 at 10:49 am
@Lizzie perhaps a little late but heres how I ended up doing the leading
space issue for the time
set tmp_time=%time:~-11,2%%time:~-8,2%%time:~-5,2%
:: method 1 use this to trim leading space entirely
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::set tmp_time=%tmp_time: =%
:: method 2 use this to replace leading space with 0
set tmp_time=%tmp_time: =0%
@ Steve W. Thanks!
Israel Torres
10 Bewc September 22, 2010 at 9:20 pm
Steve,
Thanks you for the article! Heres my take I like double digit hours, so the
trim doesnt work for me. I think it makes it harder visually and in script to
parse.
Here are how I break down my variables (not all of them are used in a given
script):
set year=%date:~-4,4%
set month=%date:~-10,2%
set day=%date:~-7,2%
set hourMilitary=%time:~-11,2%
::::: identify hours in Civilian time, and identify AM or PM
for /f tokens=1-2* %%t in (time /t) do (
set twelvehourtime=%%t
set AMPM=%%u
)
set hourCivilian=%twelvehourtime:~0,2%
::::: I like my hours double digit
if %AMPM% == AM set hourMilitary=%hourCivilian%
set minute=%time:~-8,2%
set second=%time:~-5,2%
set millisecond=%time:~-2,2%
::::: identify Name of the day and provide short date for today
for /f tokens=1-2* %%v in (date /t) do (
set dayName=%%v
set todaysdate=%%w
)
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set datetimestamp=%year%%month%%day%%hour%%minute%%second%
::::: demonstrate math abilities of set /a by getting yesterdays number
set /a TODAYminus1=%day%-1
::::: then do something practical, like query for the last 24 hours of event logs
set
yesterdaysstamp=%month%/%TODAYminus1%/%year%,%hourCivilian%:%m
inute%:%second%%AMPM%
echo year is %year%
echo month is %month%
echo day is %day%
echo hourMilitary is %hourMilitary%
echo hourCivilian is %hourCivilian%
echo AMPM is %AMPM%
echo minute is %minute%
echo second is %second%
echo millisecond is %millisecond%
echo dayName is %dayName%
echo todaysdate is %todaysdate%
echo datetimestamp is %datetimestamp%
echo TODAYminus1 is %TODAYminus1%
echo.
echo %yesterdaysstamp%
echo.
eventquery /l application /v /fo list /fi Datetime gt %yesterdaysstamp% >>
d:\%datetimestamp%_last24hourslogs.txt
Im hoping someone finds this useful, so I know I gave back.
Thanks again!
-Bewc
11 MGnP September 23, 2010 at 11:47 am
Bewc,
Excellent. Thank you very much, this is exactly what I was looking for.
MGnP
12 Tom Summers October 5, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Thanks Steve, weve been fighting the time thing all morning. This helps alot.
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Again thanks
13 Roger February 14, 2011 at 8:25 pm
It seems to me that I have seen quite a similar example in the setup package
of Dr.Batcher ( http://www.drbatcher.com ). This is an utility to create batch
files, and its extremely useful.
14 brijesh May 16, 2011 at 11:47 am
Hey guys,
could someone help me in displaying current timestamp.
i tried
%date:~-4,4%/%date:~-7,2%/%date:~-10,2%
%time:~-11,2%:%time:~-8,2%:%time:~-5,2%
but its quite long and putting it in a variable then displaying the variable show
the time when i set that variable.
please let me know how should i use that variable to show the current date and
time
thanks
15 Aidan July 8, 2011 at 6:48 am
I hate windows so thanks to all above for doing the hard work me! Very usefu,
thanks again.
Aidan
16 Steve Wiseman July 8, 2011 at 9:38 am
Glad to help Aidan. Thanks for taking the time to comment Steve
17 Bill July 27, 2011 at 2:09 am
Hi All!!!
Thanks for ALL the GREAT ideas!
I wanted to know how I can get the timestamp of a FILE to echo in a batch,
rather than just the system time.
I am FTPing a file once a minute from a camera server, and sometimes the
server hangs and doesnt update the image, so the time stamp doesnt
change.
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I wanted to be able to see the images timestamp displayed while my batch is
running.
Any ideas? (I am using a simple command (DOS) window and a batch file that
displays all FTP activity, EXCEPT the files timestamp).
Thannks!!!
18 anon August 22, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Create a filename with Date and Time stamp, cleanly.
SET CurrentDate=%date:~-4,4%%date:~-7,2%%date:~-10,2%
SET CurrentTIme=%time:~-11,2%%time:~-8,2%%time:~-5,2%
echo c:\%CurrentDate%_T%CurrentTime%.csv
19 Smari September 20, 2011 at 9:17 am
Thanks a lot Steve. that was very helpful.
20 Joel November 18, 2011 at 6:26 pm
This was a great, simple solution. And thanks to other posters, who added the
code to get the Hours, Minutes, Seconds.
21 Derek Morin December 23, 2011 at 10:21 am
Awesome code Bewc!! That is really fantastic and you obviously put a lot of
effort into it.
In case others hit an error:
I hit error with using this code, but it turned out the that double quote and single
quote characters didnt paste well from the website, and I just needed to
change them on the two for loop lines.
I also added @echo off at the top of the batch file to just see the output.
22 Waschtrommel April 26, 2012 at 3:44 am
@anon: Very helpfil hint.
For those who want to shift output into a variable, you should try FOR /F:
For /F %%i in (date /t) Do @set CURRENTDATE=%%i
If anyone has to do date calculations (f.e. relative to now or calculate the date
of next tuesday etc) a very helpful GNU-Tool was compiled for windows:
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gdate.exe (see google).
Example (take note for double percentage signs in batches):
for /F usebackq %%a in (`gdate.exe +%%Y%%m%%d-%%H%%M`) do set
NOW=%%a
%NOW% should result in something like 20120426-0930
for /F usebackq %%a in (`gdate.exe date=+1day +%%d.%%m.%%Y`) do
set TOMORROW=%%a
calculates tomorrow (word! i.e. Monday)
for /F usebackq %%a in (`gdate.exe date=+1day +%%w`) do set
DAYOFTOMORROW=%%a
Have a lot of fun
Waschtrommel
23 Waschtrommel April 26, 2012 at 4:24 am
pardon
for /F usebackq %%a in (`gdate.exe date=+1day +%%d.%%m.%%Y`) do
set TOMORROW=%%a
calculates tomorrow (German notation 27.04.2012)
for /F usebackq %%a in (`gdate.exe date=+1day +%%w`) do set
DAYOFTOMORROW=%%a
calculates dayoftomorrow (word! i.e. Monday)
24 Waschtrommel April 26, 2012 at 5:52 am
see GNU Tools for Windows date.exe
25 Steve Wiseman April 26, 2012 at 8:36 am
Thanks for the post Waschtrommel! Very helpful stuff.
26 Daniel Castellanos April 30, 2012 at 9:41 am
I tried your example of changing the directory tempzip to one with a time stamp
and received the error the syntax of the command is incorrect. would like to
send you a screenshot, but dont know where to send it. I know it has to work,
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but its something Im missing. Thanks for the help!
27 Steve Wiseman May 4, 2012 at 11:42 am
Just send something to support@intelliadmin.com and I will take a look at it for
you.
Steve
28 Amil June 15, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Nice. Thanks for the guide!
I implemented this in my one-click backup .bat file for the source code at my
work.
29 Carlos Echegaray July 22, 2012 at 11:26 pm
Hi there, i use this code to get the date and time stamp, hope it helps:
echo off
cls
echo Running
rem date, time
set varYear=%date:~-4,4%
set varMonth=%date:~-7,2%
set varDay=%date:~-10,2%
set varHour=%time:~-11,2%
if %varHour% leq 9 (
call :trim %varHour%
goto :eof
:trim
set varHour=0%*
)
:eof
set varMinutes=%time:~-8,2%
rem filename
set
varFileName=Filename_%varYear%%varMonth%%varDay%_%varHour%%v
arMinutes%.txt
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echo %varFileName%
pause
30 Scott Blaydes September 23, 2012 at 8:44 am
Thanks for the post Steve. Thanks to everyone else, as the comments are
getting to be about as useful as the original post for my needs.
31 Paul W. October 6, 2012 at 11:41 am
Knowledgethe gift that keeps on giving. This is the only place Ive been able
to find that so clearly explains the use of the date and time variable in
renaming files in a script (Ive looked at a lot of sites). Thank you Steve (and all
the other contributors). This is an excellent discussion.
32 Steve Wiseman October 6, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Thank you for the kind words Paul. Really appreciate it
Steve
33 Paul October 29, 2012 at 10:53 am
Works fine except it depends heavily on national date format outputted by
%date%
34 Steve Wiseman October 29, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Very true Paul. Too bad there is not an easier way to do this via a bat file.
35 Sun November 12, 2012 at 11:26 pm
Didnt know your sample was YYYYDDMM format not what I was expecting
YYYYMMDD easy enough to fix.
36 Art K December 18, 2012 at 5:00 pm
FYI The format of the date (delimiter, order, sizes, content), is set/customized
by the Regional and Language Settings in the Control panel:
Cntl Pnl | Regional | Customize | Date
ddd MMM dd,yyyy
is the template for the format you show.
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However, your %date% is returning the long date format, mine is returning the
short date farmat. Not sure yet what is going on.
37 parto April 11, 2013 at 5:18 am
anon, perfect
38 Sidk April 17, 2013 at 9:37 am
Thanks for the info. We just finished testing this in Windows 7 and it worked
just fine, still.
39 Sidk April 17, 2013 at 2:37 pm
We just finished testing this neat trick with Windows 8, 64 bit, and had no
problem.
40 Trey May 21, 2013 at 3:00 pm
Bewc,
I ran your script and everything works fine, as long as its not the first of the
month. today is 5-21-2013. If I change set /a TODAYminus1=%day%-1 to
set /a TODAYminus1=%day%-25
The final output says 05/-4/2013,11:51:49AM.
How do we handle traveling across months and years?
This would be great for purging old file backups!
Thanks,
Trey
41 Gody August 1, 2013 at 9:48 am
The substringing I see going on here wont work on windows systems which
have a different date/time style set through the control panel. (as Art K also
already mentioned). Please note that scripts using your code might not
generate similar results on other peoples systems. Use a PowerShell script to
have more control over your date and time usage
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff730960.aspx)