In this tutorial, we will learn the available format options for date command and how to format a date in Bash Scripting, with examples.
Bash Date
To format Bash Date to a required one, bash shell provides date command along with many format options.
Bash Date Command
Following is the syntax of date command
$ date
Format Bash Date with Options
As already said, you can format the Bash Date. And the format you wish may contain spaces as well.
Date command accepts options if provided any
$ date +<format-option><format-option>
To format date with spaces, use the syntax
$ date '+<format-option><format-option> <format-option>'
List of Bash Date Formatting Options
Following are the list of available options for date command :
| Format option | Part of Date | Description | Example Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| date +%a | Weekday | Name of weekday in short (like Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat) | Mon |
| date +%A | Weekday | Name of weekday in full (like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) | Monday |
| date +%b | Month | Name of Month in short (like Jan, Feb, Mar ) | Jan |
| date +%B | Month | Month name in full (like January, February) | January |
| date +%d | Day | Day of month (e.g., 01) | 04 |
| date +%D | MM/DD/YY | Current Date; shown in MM/DD/YY | 02/18/18 |
| date +%F | YYYY-MM-DD | Date; shown in YYYY-MM-DD | 2018-01-19 |
| date +%H | Hour | Hour in 24-hour clock format | 18 |
| date +%I | Hour | Hour in 12-hour clock format | 10 |
| date +%j | Day | Day of year (001..366) | 152 |
| date +%m | Month | Number of month (01..12) (01 is January) | 05 |
| date +%M | Minutes | Minutes (00..59) | 52 |
| date +%S | Seconds | Seconds (00..59) | 18 |
| date +%N | Nanoseconds | Nanoseconds (000000000..999999999) | 300231695 |
| date +%T | HH:MM:SS | Time as HH:MM:SS (Hours in 24 Format) | 18:55:42 |
| date +%u | Day of Week | Day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday | 7 |
| date +%U | Week | Displays week number of year, with Sunday as first day of week (00..53) | 23 |
| date +%Y | Year | Displays full year i.e. YYYY | 2018 |
| date +%Z | Timezone | Time zone abbreviation (Ex: IST, GMT) | IST |
You may use any of the above-mentioned format options (first column) for the date command in the aforementioned syntax.
Examples
Bash Date Format MM-DD-YYYY
To format date in MM-DD-YYYY format, use the command date +%m-%d-%Y.
Bash Script
#!/bin/bash d=`date +%m-%d-%Y` echo $d # 12-30-2017
Output
11-20-2020
Please observe the upper and lower case letters : %m for month, %d for day and %Y for year. %M would mean minutes.
Bash Date Format MM-YYYY
To format date in MM-YYYY format, use the command date +%m-%Y .
Bash Script
#!/bin/bash d=`date +%m-%Y` echo $d # 12-2017
Output
11-20-2020
Bash Date Format: Weekday DD-Month, YYYY
To format date in MM-DD-YYYY format, use the command date +%m-%d-%Y.
Bash Script
#!/bin/bash d=`date '+%A %d-%B, %Y'` echo $d # Saturday 30-December, 2017
Output
11-20-2020
Conclusion
Concluding this Bash Tutorial – Bash Date, we have learned to use date command, the list of Bash Date Format options available with the date command and some of the examples demonstrating the usage of the format options.