getdate(3C)						   Standard C Library Functions 					       getdate(3C)

NAME

       getdate - convert user format date and time

SYNOPSIS

       #include <time.h>

       struct tm *getdate(const char *stringextern int getdate_err;

DESCRIPTION

       The  getdate() function converts user-definable date and/or time specifications pointed to by string to a tm structure. The tm structure is
       defined in the <time.h> header.

       User-supplied templates are used to parse and interpret the input string.  The templates are  text files created by the user and identified
       via  the  environment variable DATEMSK. Each line in the template represents an acceptable date and/or time specification using	conversion
       specifications similar to those used by strftime(3C) and strptime(3C). Dates before 1902 and after 2037 are illegal. The first line in  the
       template that matches the input specification is used for interpretation and conversion into  the internal time format.

   Conversion Specifications
       The following conversion specifications are supported:

       %%    Same as %.

       %a    Locale's abbreviated weekday name.

       %A    Locale's full weekday name.

       %b    Locale's abbreviated month name.

       %B    Locale's full month name.

       %c    Locale's appropriate date and time representation.

       %C    Century number (the year divided by 100 and truncated to an integer as a decimal number [1,99]); single digits are preceded by 0; see
	     standards(5). If used without the %y specifier, this format specifier will assume the current year offset	in  whichever  century	is
	     specified. The only valid years are between 1902-2037.

       %d    day of month [01,31]; leading zero is permitted but not required.

       %D    Date as %m/%d/%y.

       %e    Same as %d.

       %h    Locale's abbreviated month name.

       %H    Hour (24-hour clock) [0,23]; leading zero is permitted but not required.

       %I    Hour (12-hour clock) [1,12]; leading zero is permitted but not required.

       %j    Day number of the year [1,366]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.

       %m    Month number [1,12]; leading zero is permitted but not required.

       %M    Minute [0,59]; leading zero is permitted but not required.

       %n    Any white space.

       %p    Locale's equivalent of either a.m. or p.m.

       %r    Appropriate time representation in the 12-hour clock format with %p.

       %R    Time as %H:%M.

   SUSv3
       %S    Seconds  [0,60];  leading	zero  is  permitted but not required. The range of values  is [00,60] rather than [00,59] to allow for the
	     occasional leap second.

   Default and other standards
       %S    Seconds [0,61]; leading zero is permitted but not required. The range of values  is [00,61] rather than  [00,59]  to  allow  for  the
	     occasional leap second and even more occasional double leap second.

       %t    Any white space.

       %T    Time as %H:%M:%S.

       %U    Week  number  of  the  year  as  a decimal number [0,53], with Sunday as the first day of the week; leading zero is permitted but not
	     required.

       %w    Weekday as a decimal number [0,6], with 0 representing Sunday.

       %W    Week number of the year as a decimal number [0,53], with Monday as the first day of the week;  leading  zero  is  permitted  but  not
	     required.

       %x    Locale's appropriate date representation.

       %X    Locale's appropriate time representation.

       %y    Year  within  century.  When  a century is not otherwise specified, values in the range 69-99 refer to years in the twentieth century
	     (1969 to 1999 inclusive); values in the range 00-68 refer to years in the twenty-first century (2000 to 2068 inclusive).

       %Y    Year, including the century (for example, 1993).

       %Z    Time zone name or no characters if no time zone exists.

   Modified Conversion Specifications
       Some conversion specifications can be modified by the E and O modifier characters to indicate that an alternative format  or  specification
       should be used rather than the one normally used by the unmodified specification. If the alternative format or specification does not exist
       in the current locale,  the behavior be as if the unmodified  conversion specification were used.

       %Ec    Locale's alternative appropriate date and time representation.

       %EC    Name of the base year (period) in the locale's alternative representation.

       %Ex    Locale's alternative date representation.

       %EX    Locale's alternative time representation.

       %Ey    Offset from %EC (year only) in the locale's alternative representation.

       %EY    Full alternative year representation.

       %Od    Day of the month using the locale's alternative  numeric symbols; leading zeros are permitted but not required.

       %Oe    Same as %Od.

       %OH    Hour (24-hour clock) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %OI    Hour (12-hour clock) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %Om    Month using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %OM    Minutes using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %OS    Seconds using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %OU    Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %Ow    Number of the weekday (Sunday=0) using the  locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %OW    Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

       %Oy    Year (offset from %C) in the locale's alternative  representation and using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.

   Internal Format Conversion
       The following rules are applied for converting the input specification into the internal format:

	   o	  If only the weekday is given, today is assumed if the given day is equal to the current day and next week if it is less.

	   o	  If only the month is given, the current month is assumed if the given month is equal to the current month and next year if it is
		  less and no year is given. (The first day of month is assumed if no day is given.)

	   o	  If  only  the year is given, the values of the tm_mon, tm_mday, tm_yday, tm_wday, and tm_isdst members of the returned tm struc-
		  ture are not specified.

	   o	  If the century is given, but the year within the century is not given, the current year within the century is assumed.

	   o	  If no hour, minute, and second are given, the current hour, minute, and second are assumed.

	   o	  If no date is given, today is assumed if the given hour is greater than the current hour and tomorrow is assumed if it is less.

   General Specifications
       A conversion specification that is an ordinary character is executed by scanning the next character  from  the  buffer.	If  the  character
       scanned from the buffer differs from the one comprising the conversion specification, the specification fails, and the differing and subse-
       quent characters remain unscanned.

       A series of conversion specifications composed of %n, %t, white space characters, or any combination is executed  by  scanning  up  to  the
       first character that is not white space (which remains unscanned), or until no more characters can be scanned.

       Any  other  conversion  specification  is  executed  by scanning characters until a character matching the next conversion specification is
       scanned, or until no more characters can be scanned.  These characters, except the one matching the next conversion specification, are then
       compared  to the locale values associated with the conversion specifier.  If a match is found, values for the appropriate tm structure mem-
       bers are set to values corresponding to the locale information. If no match is found, getdate() fails and no more characters are scanned.

       The month names, weekday names, era names, and alternative numeric symbols can consist of any combination of upper and lower case  letters.
       The  user  can  request	that  the  input date or time specification be in a specific language by setting the LC_TIME category using setlo-
       cale(3C).

RETURN VALUES

       If successful, getdate() returns a pointer to a tm structure; otherwise, it returns NULL and sets the global variable getdate_err to  indi-
       cate the error. Subsequent calls to getdate() alter the contents of getdate_err.

       The following is a complete list of the	getdate_err settings and their meanings:

       1    The DATEMSK environment variable is null or undefined.

       2    The template file cannot be opened for reading.

       3    Failed to get file status information.

       4    The template file is not a regular file.

       5    An error is encountered while reading the template file.

       6    The malloc() function failed (not enough memory is available).

       7    There is no line in the template that matches the input.

       8    The input specification is invalid (for example, February 31).

USAGE

       The getdate() function makes explicit use of macros described on the ctype(3C) manual page.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1 Examples of the getdate() function.

       The following example shows the possible contents of a template:

	 %m
	 %A %B %d %Y, %H:%M:%S
	 %A
	 %B
	 %m/%d/%y %I %p
	 %d,%m,%Y %H:%M
	 at %A the %dst of %B in %Y
	 run job at %I %p,%B %dnd
	 %A den %d. %B %Y %H.%M Uhr

       The following are examples of valid input specifications for the above template:

	 getdate("10/1/87 4 PM")
	 getdate("Friday")
	 getdate("Friday September 19 1987, 10:30:30")
	 getdate("24,9,1986 10:30")
	 getdate("at monday the 1st of december in 1986")
	 getdate("run job at 3 PM, december 2nd")

       If the LANG environment variable is set to  de (German), the following is valid:

	 getdate("freitag den 10. oktober 1986 10.30 Uhr")

       Local  time  and date specification are also supported. The following examples show how local date and time specification can be defined in
       the template.

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Invocation		     |Line in Template		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |getdate("11/27/86")	     |%m/%d/%y			   |
       |getdate("27.11.86")	     |%d.%m.%y			   |
       |getdate("86-11-27")	     |%y-%m-%d			   |
       |getdate("Friday 12:00:00")   |%A %H:%M:%S		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

       The following examples illustrate the Internal Format Conversion rules. Assume that the current date is Mon Sep 22 12:19:47  EDT  1986  and
       the LANG environment variable is not set.

       +---------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
       |Input	       |Template Line	|Date			      |
       +---------------+----------------+-----------------------------+
       |Mon	       |%a		|Mon Sep 22 12:19:48 EDT 1986 |
       |Sun	       |%a		|Sun Sep 28 12:19:49 EDT 1986 |
       |Fri	       |%a		|Fri Sep 26 12:19:49 EDT 1986 |
       |September      |%B		|Mon Sep  1 12:19:49 EDT 1986 |
       |January        |%B		|Thu Jan  1 12:19:49 EST 1987 |
       |December       |%B		|Mon Dec  1 12:19:49 EDT 1986 |
       |Sep Mon        |%b %a		|Mon Sep  1 12:19:50 EDT 1986 |
       |Jan Fri        |%b %a		|Fri Jan  2 12:19:50 EST 1987 |
       |Dec Mon        |%b %a		|Mon Dec  1 12:19:50 EST 1986 |
       |Jan Wed 1989   |%b %a %Y	|Wed Jan  4 12:19:51 EST 1989 |
       |Fri 9	       |%a %H		|Fri Sep 26 09:00:00 EDT 1986 |
       |Feb 10:30      |%b %H:%S	|Sun Feb  1 10:00:30 EST 1987 |
       |10:30	       |%H:%M		|Tue Sep 23 10:30:00 EDT 1986 |
       |13:30	       |%H:%M		|Mon Sep 22 13:30:00 EDT 1986 |
       +---------------+----------------+-----------------------------+

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |ATTRIBUTE TYPE		     |ATTRIBUTE VALUE		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Enabled			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |MT-Safe			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       ctype(3C), mktime(3C), setlocale(3C), strftime(3C), strptime(3C), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)

SunOS 5.11							    1 Nov 2003							       getdate(3C)