---
name: "dateutils.dconv"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "dateutils"
version: "0.4.11-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dateconv"
---

# dateutils.dconv(1)

Convert DATE/TIMEs between calendrical systems.

Part of [dateconv(1)](/dateconv/1.md).

## NAME

dateconv - Convert DATE/TIMEs between calendrical systems.

## SYNOPSIS

**dateconv** \[*OPTION*\]...  \[*DATE/TIME*\]...

## DESCRIPTION

Convert DATE/TIMEs between calendrical systems. If DATE/TIME is omitted date/times are read from stdin.

DATE/TIME can also be one of the following specials\
   \- \`now'           interpreted as the current (UTC) time stamp\
   \- \`time'          the time part of the current (UTC) time stamp\
   \- \`today'         the current date (according to UTC)\
   \- \`tomo\[rrow\]'    tomorrow's date (according to UTC)\
   \- \`y\[ester\]day'   yesterday's date (according to UTC)

Recognized *OPTION*s:

- **-h, --help**

  Print help and exit

- **-V, --version**

  Print version and exit

- **-q, --quiet**

  Suppress message about date/time and duration parser errors and fix-ups. The default is to print a warning or the fixed up value and return error code 2.

- **-f, --format=*STRING***

  Output format.  This can either be a specifier string (similar to strftime()'s FMT) or the name of a calendar.

- **-i, --input-format=*STRING*...**

  Input format, can be used multiple times. Each date/time will be passed to the input format parsers in the order they are given, if a date/time can be read successfully with a given input format specifier string, that value will be used.

- **-b, --base=*DT***

  For underspecified input use DT as a fallback to fill in missing fields.  Also used for ambiguous format specifiers to position their range on the absolute time line. Must be a date/time in ISO8601 format. If omitted defaults to the current date/time.

- **-e, --backslash-escapes**

  Enable interpretation of backslash escapes in the output and input format specifier strings.

- **-S, --sed-mode**

  Copy parts from the input before and after a matching date/time. Note that all occurrences of date/times within a line will be processed.

- **-E, --empty-mode**

  Empty lines that cannot be parsed.

- **--locale=*LOCALE***

  Format results according to LOCALE, this would only affect month and weekday names.

- **--from-locale=*LOCALE***

  Interpret dates on stdin or the command line as coming from the locale LOCALE, this would only affect month and weekday names as input formats have to be specified explicitly.

- **--from-zone=*ZONE***

  Interpret dates on stdin or the command line as coming from the time zone ZONE.

- **-z, --zone=*ZONE***

  Convert dates printed on stdout to time zone ZONE, default: UTC.

## FORMAT SPECS

Format specs in dateutils are similar to posix' strftime().

However, due to a broader range of supported calendars dateutils must employ different rules.

Date specs:

```
  %a  The abbreviated weekday name
  %A  The full weekday name
  %_a The weekday name shortened to a single character (MTWRFAS)
  %b  The abbreviated month name
  %B  The full month name
  %_b The month name shortened to a single character (FGHJKMNQUVXZ)
  %c  The count of the weekday within the month (range 00 to 05)
  %C  The count of the weekday within the year (range 00 to 53)
  %d  The day of the month, 2 digits (range 00 to 31)
  %D  The day of the year, 3 digits (range 000 to 366)
  %F  Equivalent to %Y-%m-%d (ymd's canonical format)
  %g  ISO week date year without the century (range 00 to 99)
  %G  ISO week date year including the century
  %j  Equivalent to %D
  %m  The month in the current calendar (range 00 to 12)
  %Q  The quarter of the year (range Q1 to Q4)
  %q  The number of the quarter (range 01 to 04)
  %s  The number of seconds since the Epoch.
  %u  The weekday as number (range 01 to 07, Sunday being 07)
  %U  The week count,  day of week is Sun (range 00 to 53)
  %V  The ISO week count,  day of week is Mon (range 01 to 53)
  %w  The weekday as number (range 00 to 06, Sunday being 00)
  %W  The week count,  day of week is Mon (range 00 to 53)
  %y  The year without a century (range 00 to 99)
  %Y  The year including the century
  %_y The year shortened to a single digit
  %Z  The zone offset in hours and minutes (HH:MM) with
      a preceding sign (+ for offsets east of UTC, - for offsets
      west of UTC)
```

```
  %Od The day as roman numerals
  %Om The month as roman numerals
  %Oy The two digit year as roman numerals
  %OY The year including the century as roman numerals
```

```
  %rs In time systems whose Epoch is different from the unix Epoch, this
      selects the number of seconds since then.
  %rY In calendars with years that don't coincide with the Gregorian
      years, this selects the calendar's year.
```

```
  %dth  The day of the month as an ordinal number, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
  %mth  The month of the year as an ordinal number, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
```

```
  %db The business day of the month (since last month's ultimo)
  %dB Number of business days until this month's ultimo
```

Time specs:

```
  %H  The hour of the day using a 24h clock, 2 digits (range 00 to 23)
  %I  The hour of the day using a 12h clock, 2 digits (range 01 to 12)
  %M  The minute (range 00 to 59)
  %N  The nanoseconds (range 000000000 to 999999999)
  %p  The string AM or PM, noon is PM and midnight is AM.
  %P  Like %p but in lowercase
  %S  The  (range 00 to 60, 60 is for leap seconds)
  %T  Equivalent to %H:%M:%S
```

General specs:

```
  %n  A newline character
  %t  A tab character
  %%  A literal % character
```

Modifiers:

```
  %O  Modifier to turn decimal numbers into Roman numerals
  %r  Modifier to turn units into real units
  %0  Modifier to turn on zero prefixes
  %SPC  Modifier to turn on space prefixes
  %-  Modifier to turn off prefixes altogether
  th  Suffix, read and print ordinal numbers
  b   Suffix, treat days as business days
```

By design dates before 1601-01-01 are not supported.

For conformity here is a list of calendar designators and their corresponding format string:

```
  ymd     %Y-%m-%d
  ymcw    %Y-%m-%c-%w
  ywd     %rY-W%V-%u
  bizda   %Y-%m-%db
  lilian     n/a
  ldn        n/a
  julian     n/a
  jdn        n/a
  matlab     n/a
  mdn        n/a
```

These designators can be used as output format string, moreover, @code{lilian}/@code{ldn} and @code{julian}/@code{jdn} can also be used as input format string.

## EXAMPLES

```
  $ dateconv 2012-03-01
  2012-03-01
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv -i "%d/%b/%y" 01/Mar/12
  2012-03-01
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv -f "%d/%b/%y" 2012-03-01
  01/Mar/12
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv -f "%d/%b/%y" -i "%OY %Om %Od" "MCMXCVIII IX XVII"
  17/Sep/98
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv 12:03:01
  12:03:01
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv -i "%I:%M:%S %p" "11:22:33 PM"
  23:22:33
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv '2012-03-01 00:00:00'
  2012-03-01T00:00:00
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv 2012-03-01T12:34:56
  2012-03-01T12:34:56
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv --zone America/Chicago <<EOF
  2012-03-01T07:05:06
  2012-03-01T08:12:34
  2012-03-11T01:05:06
  2012-03-11T02:05:06
  2012-03-11T07:05:06
  2012-03-11T08:05:06
  2012-03-11T17:05:06
  EOF
  2012-03-01T01:05:06
  2012-03-01T02:12:34
  2012-03-10T19:05:06
  2012-03-10T20:05:06
  2012-03-11T01:05:06
  2012-03-11T03:05:06
  2012-03-11T12:05:06
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv --from-zone America/Chicago <<EOF
  2012-03-01T01:05:06
  2012-03-01T02:12:34
  2012-03-10T19:05:06
  2012-03-10T20:05:06
  2012-03-11T01:05:06
  2012-03-11T03:05:06
  2012-03-11T12:05:06
  EOF
  2012-03-01T07:05:06
  2012-03-01T08:12:34
  2012-03-11T01:05:06
  2012-03-11T02:05:06
  2012-03-11T07:05:06
  2012-03-11T08:05:06
  2012-03-11T17:05:06
  $
```

```
  $ dateconv --from-zone America/Chicago -z Europe/Berlin '2012-03-01 12:00' -i '%F %H:%M' -f '%F %T'
  2012-03-01 19:00:00
  $
```

## AUTHOR

Written by Sebastian Freundt \<freundt@fresse.org\>

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: https://github.com/hroptatyr/dateutils/issues

## SEE ALSO

The full documentation for **dateconv** is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the **info** and **dateconv** programs are properly installed at your site, the command

-

  **info (dateutils)dateconv**

should give you access to the complete manual.
