Format date and time in a Windows batch script

Question

In a Windows (Windows XP) batch script I need to format the current date and time for later use in files names, etc.

It is similar to Stack Overflow question How to append a date in batch files, but with time in as well.

I have this so far:

echo %DATE%
echo %TIME%
set datetimef=%date:~-4%_%date:~3,2%_%date:~0,2%__%time:~0,2%_%time:~3,2%_%time:~6,2%
echo %datetimef%

which gives:

28/07/2009
 8:35:31.01
2009_07_28__ 8_36_01

Is there a way I can allow for a single digit hour in %TIME%, so I can get the following?

2009_07_28__08_36_01

Answer 1

Create a file called "search_files.bat" and place the contents below into the file. Then double click it. The temporary %THH% variable was put in place to handle the AM appropriately. If there is a 0 in the first 2 digits of the time, Windows ignores the rest of the file name of the LOG file.

CD .
SET THH=%time:~0,2%
SET THH=%THH: =0%
dir /s /b *.* > %date:~10,4%-%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%@%THH%.%time:~3,2%.%time:~6,2%.LOG

Answer 2

As has been noted, parsing the date and time is only useful if you know the format being used by the current user (for example, MM/dd/yy or dd-MM-yyyy just to name two). This could be determined, but by the time you do all the stressing and parsing, you will still end up with some situation where there is an unexpected format used, and more tweaks will be be necessary.

You can also use some external program that will return a date slug in your preferred format, but that has disadvantages of needing to distribute the utility program with your script/batch.

There are also batch tricks using the CMOS clock in a pretty raw way, but that is tooo close to bare wires for most people, and also not always the preferred place to retrieve the date/time.

Below is a solution that avoids the above problems. Yes, it introduces some other issues, but for my purposes I found this to be the easiest, clearest, most portable solution for creating a datestamp in .bat files for modern Windows systems. This is just an example, but I think you will see how to modify for other date and/or time formats, etc.

reg copy "HKCU\Control Panel\International" "HKCU\Control Panel\International-Temp" /f
reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\International" /v sShortDate /d "yyMMdd" /f
@REM reg query "HKCU\Control Panel\International" /v sShortDate
set LogDate=%date%
reg copy "HKCU\Control Panel\International-Temp" "HKCU\Control Panel\International" /f

Answer 3

Here is how I generate a log filename (based on http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-getdate.html):

@ECHO OFF
:: Check WMIC is available
WMIC.EXE Alias /? >NUL 2>&1 || GOTO s_error

:: Use WMIC to retrieve date and time
FOR /F "skip=1 tokens=1-6" %%G IN ('WMIC Path Win32_LocalTime Get Day^,Hour^,Minute^,Month^,Second^,Year /Format:table') DO (
   IF "%%~L"=="" goto s_done
      Set _yyyy=%%L
      Set _mm=00%%J
      Set _dd=00%%G
      Set _hour=00%%H
      SET _minute=00%%I
      SET _second=00%%K
)
:s_done

:: Pad digits with leading zeros
      Set _mm=%_mm:~-2%
      Set _dd=%_dd:~-2%
      Set _hour=%_hour:~-2%
      Set _minute=%_minute:~-2%
      Set _second=%_second:~-2%

Set logtimestamp=%_yyyy%-%_mm%-%_dd%_%_hour%_%_minute%_%_second%
goto make_dump

:s_error
echo WMIC is not available, using default log filename
Set logtimestamp=_

:make_dump
set FILENAME=database_dump_%logtimestamp%.sql
...

Answer 4

:: =============================================================
:: Batch file to display Date and Time seprated by undescore.
:: =============================================================
:: Read the system date.
:: =============================================================
@SET MyDate=%DATE%
@SET MyDate=%MyDate:/=:%
@SET MyDate=%MyDate:-=:%
@SET MyDate=%MyDate: =:%
@SET MyDate=%MyDate:\=:%
@SET MyDate=%MyDate::=_%
:: =============================================================
:: Read the system time.
:: =============================================================
@SET MyTime=%TIME%
@SET MyTime=%MyTime: =0%
@SET MyTime=%MyTime:.=:%
@SET MyTime=%MyTime::=_%
:: =============================================================
:: Build the DateTime string.
:: =============================================================
@SET DateTime=%MyDate%_%MyTime%
:: =============================================================
:: Display the Date and Time as it is now.
:: =============================================================
@ECHO MyDate="%MyDate%" MyTime="%MyTime%" DateTime="%DateTime%"
:: =============================================================
:: Wait before close.
:: =============================================================
@PAUSE
:: =============================================================

Answer 5

This is my 2 cents for adatetime string. On MM DD YYYY systems switch the first and second %DATE:~ entries.

    REM ====================================================================================
    REM CREATE UNIQUE DATETIME STRING FOR ADDING TO FILENAME
    REM ====================================================================================
    REM Can handle dd DDxMMxYYYY and DDxMMxYYYY > CREATES YYYYMMDDHHMMSS (x= any character)
    REM ====================================================================================
    REM CHECK for SHORTDATE dd DDxMMxYYYY 
    IF "%DATE:~0,1%" GTR "3" (
        SET DATETIME=%DATE:~9,4%%DATE:~6,2%%DATE:~3,2%%TIME:~0,2%%TIME:~3,2%%TIME:~6,2%
    ) ELSE (
    REM ASSUMES SHORTDATE DDxMMxYYYY
        SET DATETIME=%DATE:~6,4%%DATE:~3,2%%DATE:~0,2%%TIME:~0,2%%TIME:~3,2%%TIME:~6,2%
        )
    REM CORRECT FOR HOURS BELOW 10
    IF %DATETIME:~8,2% LSS 10 SET DATETIME=%DATETIME:~0,8%0%DATETIME:~9,5%
    ECHO %DATETIME%

Answer 6

I ended up with this script:

set hour=%time:~0,2%
if "%hour:~0,1%" == " " set hour=0%hour:~1,1%
echo hour=%hour%
set min=%time:~3,2%
if "%min:~0,1%" == " " set min=0%min:~1,1%
echo min=%min%
set secs=%time:~6,2%
if "%secs:~0,1%" == " " set secs=0%secs:~1,1%
echo secs=%secs%

set year=%date:~-4%
echo year=%year%

:: On WIN2008R2 e.g. I needed to make your 'set month=%date:~3,2%' like below ::otherwise 00 appears for MONTH

set month=%date:~4,2%
if "%month:~0,1%" == " " set month=0%month:~1,1%
echo month=%month%
set day=%date:~0,2%
if "%day:~0,1%" == " " set day=0%day:~1,1%
echo day=%day%

set datetimef=%year%%month%%day%_%hour%%min%%secs%

echo datetimef=%datetimef%