Re: Inserting a timestamp in a file

[Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com>]

Fred Picher <frederificc@yahoo.ca> writes:

> Hello,
>
>   Is there a way to insert a timestamp at a precise place in a file,
>   eg. is there a function that does this ?

Sounds like the kind of thing skeletons are good for.  If you want
something more customized than the existing timestamp functions. (Like
I did) take a look at skeletons here:

     (info "(autotype)Top")

This example may help you get it the way you want:

I wanted something for adding timestamped comments to files in a
certain format... like this:

# [HP 01/31/09_10:24:55 <MY COMMENT GOES HERE> ]

You can get just about any style time format you want by messing with
format-time-string.

This code inserts the above timestamp comment 
(minus the stuff above between `<>')

(define-skeleton hp-comdate
	"Insert #[HP] comment and 
	date string with no newline."
	nil
	"# [HP "
	(format-time-string "%m/%d/%y_%T ") _ " ] ")

So then you can say `M-x hp-comdate <RET>' to insert the skeleton