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Check if a string is a valid timestamp in UNIX.

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# 1  
Old 05-21-2014
Check if a string is a valid timestamp in UNIX.
Hi all,
I have date and time value in a string,
I want to check if it is a valid date and time.

Need help on this.

Thanks
# 2  
Old 05-21-2014
A few questions:-
  • What have you tried so far?
  • What output/errors are you getting?
  • What OS and version are you using?
  • What are you writing your code in?
Most importantly, What have you tried so far?


Give a man some food and he will eat for a day. Give him seeds and teach him to farm and he will feed his family.



Robin
# 3  
Old 05-21-2014
I tried date -d $substring2
but this doesnt take the mins and secs
# 4  
Old 05-21-2014
What is the value of $substring2 when you call the date command?

If I set it to "12:34:56" I get the current date displayed with that as a time and a zero return code. Using "12:34:67" I get an error and a non-zero return code.


What input/output/errors do you see?




Robin

---------- Post updated at 12:55 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:47 PM ----------

Have a look here too.

https://www.gnu.org/software/coreuti...-input-formats



Robin
# 5  
Old 05-21-2014
Its like
Code:
20140521122301

where its YYYYMMDDHHMISS format..
# 6  
Old 05-21-2014
you can do this check in oracle
Code:
select to_date('20140521122301','YYYYMMDDHHMISS') from dual;

if date is invalid oracle will throw error else the result.
# 7  
Old 05-21-2014
Without reaching out to Oracle, I don't think that format is acceptable. Did you read the GNU web pages I suggested in my update to previous post? They are not wonderfully clean/explicit and I have struggled to get things worked out, but they are the best I have found.

Try setting it to format "YYYYMMDD HH:Mi:SS"

That works for me:-
Code:
# date -d "20140505 13:33:45"
Mon May  5 13:33:45 BST 2014
# echo $?
0
# date -d 20140505133345     
date: invalid date `20140505133345'
# echo $?               
1
#



Robin
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