Windows batch formatted date into variable

Question

How do I save the current date in YYYY-MM-DD format into some variable in a Windows  bat file   Unix shell analogue   today  date   F  echo  today

User · Answer

I am using the following   set iso date  date  6 4 - date  3 2 - date  0 2    Or in combination with a logfile name  MyLogFileName    set log file  date  6 4 - date  3 2 - date  0 2 -MyLogFileName

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You can get the current date in a locale-agnostic way using  for  f  skip 1    x in   wmic os get localdatetime   do if not defined MyDate set MyDate   x   Then you can extract the individual parts using substrings   set today  MyDate  0 4 - MyDate  4 2 - MyDate  6 2    Another way  where you get variables that contain the individual parts  would be   for  f   x in   wmic path win32 localtime get  format list    findstr       do set   x set today  Year - Month - Day    Much nicer than fiddling with substrings  at the expense of polluting your variable namespace   If you need UTC instead of local time  the command is more or less the same   for  f   x in   wmic path win32 utctime get  format list    findstr       do set   x set today  Year - Month - Day

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Due to date and time format is location specific info  retrieving them from  date  and  time  variables will need extra effort to parse the string with format transform into consideration  A good idea is to use some API to retrieve the data structure and parse as you wish  WMIC is a good choice  Below example use Win32 LocalTime  You can also use Win32 CurrentTime or Win32 UTCTime    echo off   SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION   for  f   x in   wmic path Win32 LocalTime get  format list    findstr       do set   x   set yyyy 0000 Year    set mmmm 0000 Month    set dd 00 Day    set hh 00 Hour    set mm 00 Minute    set ss 00 Second    set ts  yyyy  -4 - mmmm  -2 - dd  -2   hh  -2   mm  -2   ss  -2    echo  ts    ENDLOCAL     Result  2018-04-25 10 03 11

User · Answer

Just use the  date  variable   echo  date

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It is possible to use PowerShell and redirect its output to an environment variable by using a loop   From the command line  cmd    for  f  tokens     a in   powershell get-date -format   yyyy-MM-dd HH mm     do set td  a  echo  td  2016-25-02 17 25   In a batch file you might escape  a as   a   for  f  tokens      a in   powershell get-date -format   yyyy-MM-dd HH mm     do set td   a

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Check this one                    for  f  tokens 2 delims      a in   wmic OS Get localdatetime  value   do set  dt   a  set  YY  dt  2 2    amp  set  YYYY  dt  0 4    amp  set  MM  dt  4 2    amp  set  DD  dt  6 2   set  HH  dt  8 2    amp  set  Min  dt  10 2    amp  set  Sec  dt  12 2    amp  set  MS  dt  15 3   set  datestamp  YYYY  MM  DD    amp  set  timestamp  HH  Min  Sec    amp  set  fullstamp  YYYY - MM - DD   HH - Min - Sec - MS   echo datestamp    datestamp   echo timestamp    timestamp   echo fullstamp    fullstamp   pause

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This is an extension of Joey s answer to include the time and pad the parts with 0 s   For example  the result will be 2019-06-01 17-25-36  Also note that this is the UTC time     for  f   x in   wmic path win32 utctime get  format list    findstr       do set   x    set Month 0 Month    set Month  Month  -2    set Day 0 Day    set Day  Day  -2    set Hour 0 Hour    set Hour  Hour  -2    set Minute 0 Minute    set Minute  Minute  -2    set Second 0 Second    set Second  Second  -2     set TimeStamp  Year - Month - Day   Hour - Minute - Second

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If you have Python installed  you can do  python -c  import datetime print datetime date today   strftime   Y- m- d       You can easily adapt the format string to your needs

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If you don t mind an one-time investment of 10 to 30 minutes to get a reliable solution  that doesn t depend on Windows  region settings   please read on   Let s free our minds  Do you want to simplify the scripts to just look like this   Assume you wants to set the LOG DATETIME variable   FOR  F  tokens   USEBACKQ    F IN   FormatNow  yyyy-MM-dd    DO     Set LOG DATETIME   F    echo I am going to write log to Testing  LOG DATETIME  log   You can  Simply build a FormatNow exe with C   NET and add it to your PATH   Notes    You can use any Visual Studio edition  such as Visual Studio Express  to build the FormatNow exe  In Visual Studio  choose the  Console Application  C  project  not  Windows Forms Application  project  Common sense  the built FormatNow exe will need  NET Framework to run  Common sense  after adding FormatNow exe to PATH variable  you need to restart CMD to take effect  It also applies to any change in environment variables    Benefits    It s not slow  finishes within 0 2 seconds    Many formats are supported https   msdn microsoft com en-us library 8kb3ddd4 v vs 110  aspx e g  FormatNow  ddd  to get only the day of week  FormatNow  yyyy  to get only the year It doesn t depend on Windows  region settings  so its output is much more reliable  On the other hand   date  doesn t give a consistent format over different computers  and is not reliable  You don t need to create so many CMD variables and pollute the variable namespace  It would require 3 lines in the batch script to invoke the program and get the results  It should be reasonably short enough    Source code of FormatNow exe which I built with Visual Studio 2010  I prefer to build it myself to avoid the risk of downloading an unknown  possibly malicious program   Just copy and paste the codes below  build the program once  and then you have a reliable date formatter for all future uses   using System  using System Collections Generic  using System Linq  using System Text  using System Globalization   namespace FormatNow       class Program               static void Main string   args                        try                               if  args Length  lt  1                                        throw new ArgumentException  Missing format                                      string format   args 0                   Console Write DateTime Now ToString format  CultureInfo InvariantCulture DateTimeFormat                              catch  Exception ex                                Console WriteLine ex ToString                                        In general  when dealing with complicated logics  we can make it simpler for by building a very small program and calling the program to capture the output back to a batch script variable instead  We are not students and we re not taking exams requiring us to follow the batch-script-only rule to solve problems  In real working environment  any  legal  method is allowed  Why should we still stick to the poor capabilities of Windows batch script that needs workarounds for many simple tasks  Why should we use the wrong tool for the job

User · Answer

If you wish to achieve this using standard MS-DOS commands in a batch file then you could use   FOR  F  TOKENS 1 eol   DELIMS       A IN   DATE T   DO SET dd   A FOR  F  TOKENS 1 2 eol   DELIMS       A IN   DATE T   DO SET mm   B FOR  F  TOKENS 1 2 3 eol   DELIMS       A IN   DATE T   DO SET yyyy   C   I m sure this can be improved upon further but this gives the date into 3 variables for Day  dd   Month  mm  and Year  yyyy   You can then use these later in your batch script as required   SET todaysdate  yyyy  mm  dd  echo  dd  echo  mm  echo  yyyy  echo  todaysdate    While I understand an answer has been accepted for this question this alternative method may be appreciated by many looking to achieve this without using the WMI console  so I hope it adds some value to this question

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If powershell is available  you can use codes below     get date  BuildDate  get-date -format  yyMMdd   echo BuildDate  BuildDate    get time  BuildTime  get-date -format  hhmmss   echo BuildTime  BuildTime   Here is the result   BuildDate 200518 BuildTime 115919

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As per answer by  ProVi just change to suit the formatting you require  echo  DATE  10 4 - DATE  7 2 - DATE  4 2   TIME  0 2   TIME  3 2   TIME  6 2    will return   yyyy-MM-dd hh mm ss 2015-09-15 18 36 11   EDIT As per  Jeb comment  whom is correct the above time format will only work if your DATE  T command returns  ddd dd mm yyyy Thu 17 09 2015   It is easy to edit to suit your locale however  by using the indexing of each character in the string returned by the relevant  DATE  environment variable you can extract the parts of the string you need   eg  Using  DATE 10 4  would expand the DATE environment variable  and then use only the 4 characters that begin at the 11th  offset 10  character of the expanded result  For example if using US styled dates then the following applies  ddd mm dd yyyy Thu 09 17 2015  echo  DATE  10 4 - DATE  4 2 - DATE  7 2   TIME  0 2   TIME  3 2   TIME  6 2  2015-09-17 18 36 11

User · Answer

echo  DATE  10 4  DATE  7 2  DATE  4 2

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I set an environment variable to the value in the numeric format desired by doing this   FOR  F  tokens 1 2 3 4 delims      a IN   echo  date    DO set DateRun  d- b- c

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Use date  T to find the format on command prompt   If the date format is Thu 17 03 2016 use like this   set datestr  date  10 4 - date  7 2 - date  4 2  echo  datestr

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Two more ways that do not depend on the time settings  both taken from How get data time independent from localization   And both also get the day of the week and none of them requires admin permissions     MAKECAB - will work on EVERY Windows system  fast  but creates a small temporary file   the foxidrive script     echo off pushd   temp   makecab  D RptFileName   rpt  D InfFileName   inf  f nul  gt nul for  f  tokens 3-7    a in   find  i  makecab   lt   rpt   do       set  current-date   e-  b-  c      set  current-time   d      set  weekday   a    del     popd echo  weekday   current-date   current-time  pause  ROBOCOPY - it s not a native command for Windows nbsp XP and Windows Server 2003  but it can be downloaded from the Microsoft site  But it is built-in in everything from Windows nbsp Vista and above    echo off setlocal for  f  skip 8 tokens 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 delims       D in   robocopy  l        ns  nc  ndl  nfl  np  njh  XF    XD     do       set  dow   D      set  month   E      set  day   F      set  HH   G      set  MM   H      set  SS   I      set  year   J     echo Day of the week   dow  echo Day of the month    day  echo Month    month  echo hour    HH  echo minutes    MM  echo seconds    SS  echo year    year  endlocal   And three more ways that uses other Windows script languages  They will give you more flexibility e g  you can get week of the year  time in milliseconds and so on  JScript BATCH hybrid  need to be saved as  bat   JScript is available on every system from Windows NT and above  as a part of Windows Script Host  though can be disabled through the registry it s a rare case     if   X     Y   end    ---Harmless hybrid line that begins a JScript comment   echo off cscript   E JScript   nologo    f0  exit  b 0  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------    function GetCurrentDate            Today date time which will used to set as default date      var todayDate   new Date        todayDate   todayDate getFullYear      -                         0     todayDate getMonth     1   slice -2     -                         0    todayDate getDate    slice -2            0    todayDate getHours    slice -2                               0    todayDate getMinutes    slice -2        return todayDate     WScript Echo GetCurrentDate      VBScript BATCH hybrid  Is it possible to embed and execute VBScript within a batch file without using a temporary file   same case as jscript   but hybridization is not so perfect    sub echo str   end sub echo off   gt nul 2 gt  amp 1   copy  Y  windir  System32 doskey exe  windir  System32   exe  gt nul   amp  echo current date    amp  cscript  nologo  E vbscript    f0    amp  exit  b   0   vbGeneralDate - Default  Returns date  mm dd yy and time if specified  hh mm ss PM AM   1   vbLongDate - Returns date  weekday  monthname  year  2   vbShortDate - Returns date  mm dd yy  3   vbLongTime - Returns time  hh mm ss PM AM  4   vbShortTime - Return time  hh mm  WScript echo  Replace FormatDateTime Date  1          -    PowerShell - can be installed on every machine that has  NET - download from Microsoft  v1  v2  and v3  only for Windows nbsp 7 and above    Installed by default on everything form Windows nbsp 7 Win2008 and above   C   gt  powershell get-date -format   dd-MMM-yyyy HH mm    Self-compiled jscript net batch  I have never seen a Windows machine without  NET so I think this is a pretty portable     if   X     Y   end         silent line that start jscript comment          echo off                                                Compile the script                                              setlocal if exist    n0 exe  goto  skip compilation  set  frm  SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework      searching the latest installed  net framework for  f  tokens   delims     v in   dir  b  s  a d  o -n   SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework v     do       if exist    v jsc exe            rem    the javascript net compiler         set  jsc    dpsnfxv jsc exe          goto  break loop         echo jsc exe not found  amp  amp  exit  b 0  break loop   call  jsc   nologo  out    n0 exe     dpsfnx0                                                 End of compilation                                               skip compilation     n0 exe   exit  b 0          End of JScript comment         import System  import System IO   var dt DateTime Now  Console WriteLine dt ToString  yyyy-MM-dd hh mm ss      Logman This cannot get the year and day of the week  It s comparatively slow  also creates a temp file and is based on the time stamps that logman puts on its log files Will work everything from Windows nbsp XP and above  It probably will be never used by anybody - including me - but it is one more way      echo off setlocal del  q  f  temp  timestampfile    Logman exe stop ts-CPU 1 gt nul 2 gt  amp 1 Logman exe delete ts-CPU 1 gt nul 2 gt  amp 1  Logman exe create counter ts-CPU  -sc 2 -v mmddhhmm -max 250 -c   Processor  Total     Processor Time  -o  temp  timestampfile   gt nul Logman exe start ts-CPU 1 gt nul 2 gt  amp 1  Logman exe stop ts-CPU  gt nul 2 gt  amp 1 Logman exe delete ts-CPU  gt nul 2 gt  amp 1 for  f  tokens 2 delims       t in    dir  b  temp  timestampfile    amp del  q f  temp  timestampfile     do set timestamp   t  echo  timestamp  echo MM   timestamp  0 2  echo dd   timestamp  2 2  echo hh   timestamp  4 2  echo mm   timestamp  6 2   endlocal exit  b 0    More information about the Get-Date function

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I really liked Joey s method  but I thought I d expand upon it a bit   In this approach  you can run the code multiple times and not worry about the old date value  sticking around  because it s already defined   Each time you run this batch file  it will output an ISO 8601 compatible combined date and time representation   FOR  F  skip 1    D IN   WMIC OS GET LocalDateTime   DO  SET LIDATE   D  amp  GOTO  GOT LIDATE   GOT LIDATE SET DATETIME  LIDATE  0 4 - LIDATE  4 2 - LIDATE  6 2 T LIDATE  8 2   LIDATE  10 2   LIDATE  12 2  ECHO  DATETIME    In this version  you ll have to be careful not to copy paste the same code to multiple places in the file because that would cause duplicate labels  You could either have a separate label for each copy  or just put this code into its own batch file and call it from your source file wherever necessary

[windows] Windows batch: formatted date into variable

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