Get current date and time as a string?

Get current date and time as a string?

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Greetings,

after having unsuccessfully used "C-h a" to find a command returning the
current date and time (preferably as "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss") I'm now ask-
ing the combined wisdom of this list: is there such a thing?

Sincerely,
  Rainer

Re: Get current date and time as a string?

[Emanuel Berg]

Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:

> after having unsuccessfully used "C-h a" to find a command
> returning the current date and time (preferably as
> "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss")

(format-time-string "%FT%T")

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: Get current date and time as a string?

[Joost Kremers]

On Wed, May 22 2024, Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> after having unsuccessfully used "C-h a" to find a command returning the
> current date and time (preferably as "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss") I'm now ask-
> ing the combined wisdom of this list: is there such a thing?

You'll want a combination of `current-time` and `format-time-string`. See (info
"(elisp) Time of Day") and (info "(elisp) Time Parsing"), respectively.

HTH


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments

Re: Get current date and time as a string?

[Michael Heerdegen via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm> writes:

> You'll want a combination of `current-time` and
> `format-time-string`. See (info "(elisp) Time of Day") and (info
> "(elisp) Time Parsing"), respectively.

Or `current-time-string'.

Michael.

Re: Get current date and time as a string?

[Joost Kremers]

On Wed, May 22 2024, Michael Heerdegen via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor wrote:
> Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm> writes:
>
>> You'll want a combination of `current-time` and
>> `format-time-string`. See (info "(elisp) Time of Day") and (info
>> "(elisp) Time Parsing"), respectively.
>
> Or `current-time-string'.

Possibly, but IIUC it won't give you the time in the format that the OP is
looking for.

-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments

Re: Get current date and time as a string?

[tpeplt]

>> On Wed, May 22 2024, Dr Rainer Woitok wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> after having unsuccessfully used "C-h a" to find a command returning the
>> current date and time (preferably as "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss") I'm now ask-
>> ing the combined wisdom of this list: is there such a thing?
>
> You'll want a combination of `current-time` and `format-time-string`. See (info
> "(elisp) Time of Day") and (info "(elisp) Time Parsing"), respectively.
>

Also, for future reference, try "C-h a" and enter "apropos" at the
prompt.  This will show the many other forms of looking up appropriate
information, including ‘apropos-function’.  So, instead of looking up
commands (interactive functions), look up functions (commands,
functions, macros) related to time:

    M-x apropos-function
    Search for function (word list or regexp): time RET

And since it accepts regular expressions, you can narrow this search to
eliminate names that include, for example, "timer":

    Search for function (word list or regexp): -time$\|^time-\|-time-

-- 
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Birds.

Re: Get current date and time as a string?

[Pierre Rouleau]

The function you are looking for is `format-time-string'.
Get help on it with ``C-h f format-time-string``

Use ielm (the Elisp shell) to experiment while the help is shown inside
another buffer.

*** Welcome to IELM ***  Type (describe-mode) or press C-h m for help.
ELISP> (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d")
"2024-05-22"
ELISP> (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
"2024-05-22T14:15:11"
ELISP>

Hope this helps

On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 7:23 AM Dr Rainer Woitok <rainer.woitok@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> after having unsuccessfully used "C-h a" to find a command returning the
> current date and time (preferably as "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss") I'm now ask-
> ing the combined wisdom of this list: is there such a thing?
>
> Sincerely,
>   Rainer
>
>

-- 
/Pierre

Re: Get current date and time as a string?

[Emanuel Berg]

Pierre Rouleau wrote:

> The function you are looking for is `format-time-string'.
> Get help on it with ``C-h f format-time-string``
>
> Use ielm (the Elisp shell) to experiment while the help is
> shown inside another buffer.
>
> *** Welcome to IELM ***  Type (describe-mode) or press C-h m for help.
> ELISP> (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d")
> "2024-05-22"
> ELISP> (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S")
> "2024-05-22T14:15:11"

Close but no cigar :)

  (format-time-string "%FT%T") ; 2024-05-23T02:32:40

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal