strftime(p1) public

Formats time according to the directives in the given format string. Any text not listed as a directive will be passed through to the output string.

Format meaning:

%a - The abbreviated weekday name (``Sun'')
%A - The  full  weekday  name (``Sunday'')
%b - The abbreviated month name (``Jan'')
%B - The  full  month  name (``January'')
%c - The preferred local date and time representation
%C - Century (20 in 2009)
%d - Day of the month (01..31)
%D - Date (%m/%d/%y)
%e - Day of the month, blank-padded ( 1..31)
%F - Equivalent to %Y-%m-%d (the ISO 8601 date format)
%h - Equivalent to %b
%H - Hour of the day, 24-hour clock (00..23)
%I - Hour of the day, 12-hour clock (01..12)
%j - Day of the year (001..366)
%k - hour, 24-hour clock, blank-padded ( 0..23)
%l - hour, 12-hour clock, blank-padded ( 0..12)
%L - Millisecond of the second (000..999)
%m - Month of the year (01..12)
%M - Minute of the hour (00..59)
%n - Newline (\n)
%N - Fractional seconds digits, default is 9 digits (nanosecond)
        %3N  millisecond (3 digits)
        %6N  microsecond (6 digits)
        %9N  nanosecond (9 digits)
%p - Meridian indicator (``AM''  or  ``PM'')
%P - Meridian indicator (``am''  or  ``pm'')
%r - time, 12-hour (same as %I:%M:%S %p)
%R - time, 24-hour (%H:%M)
%s - Number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.
%S - Second of the minute (00..60)
%t - Tab character (\t)
%T - time, 24-hour (%H:%M:%S)
%u - Day of the week as a decimal, Monday being 1. (1..7)
%U - Week  number  of the current year,
        starting with the first Sunday as the first
        day of the first week (00..53)
%v - VMS date (%e-%b-%Y)
%V - Week number of year according to ISO 8601 (01..53)
%W - Week  number  of the current year,
        starting with the first Monday as the first
        day of the first week (00..53)
%w - Day of the week (Sunday is 0, 0..6)
%x - Preferred representation for the date alone, no time
%X - Preferred representation for the time alone, no date
%y - Year without a century (00..99)
%Y - Year with century
%z - Time zone as  hour offset from UTC (e.g. +0900)
%Z - Time zone name
%% - Literal ``%'' character

 t = Time.now                        #=> 2007-11-19 08:37:48 -0600
 t.strftime("Printed on %m/%d/%Y")   #=> "Printed on 11/19/2007"
 t.strftime("at %I:%M%p")            #=> "at 08:37AM"
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September 12, 2008
24 thanks

Readable strftime

%a - The abbreviated weekday name (“Sun”)

%A - The full weekday name (“Sunday”)

%b - The abbreviated month name (“Jan”)

%B - The full month name (“January”)

%c - The preferred local date and time representation

%d - Day of the month (01..31) %H - Hour of the day, 24-hour clock (00..23)

%I - Hour of the day, 12-hour clock (01..12)

%j - Day of the year (001..366)

%m - Month of the year (01..12) %M - Minute of the hour (00..59)

%p - Meridian indicator (“AM” or “PM”)

%S - Second of the minute (00..60)

%U - Week number of the current year, starting with the first Sunday as the first day of the first week (00..53)

%W - Week number of the current year, starting with the first Monday as the first day of the first week (00..53)

%w - Day of the week (Sunday is 0, 0..6)

%x - Preferred representation for the date alone, no time

%X - Preferred representation for the time alone, no date

%y - Year without a century (00..99) %Y - Year with century

%Z - Time zone name %% - Literal “%” character t = Time.now t.strftime(“Printed on %m/%d/%Y”) #=> “Printed on 04/09/2003” t.strftime(“at %I:%M%p”) #=> “at 08:56AM”

March 27, 2009
4 thanks

Hour with/without preceding zero

One gotcha is the difference between the hour in 12 hour time with and without a preceding zero. In some fonts they look the same.

With preceding zero (capital I)

Time.now.strftime("%I:%M") # => 05:21

Without preceding zero (lowercase L)

Time.now.strftime("%l:%M") # => 5:21
February 5, 2010
3 thanks

Rmoving preceding 0's

In most *nix system, adding a - after the % will remove preceding 0s.

So %-d for a single digit day, or %-I for a single digit hour, etc.

March 12, 2010
3 thanks

Complete Formatting Codes

NOTE: Some of these seem only to work for DateTime (e.g. %L, %N)

%a - The abbreviated weekday name (“Sun”)

%A - The full weekday name (“Sunday”)

%b - The abbreviated month name (“Jan”)

%B - The full month name (“January”)

%c - The preferred local date and time representation

%C - Century (20 in 2009)

%d - Day of the month (01..31)

%D - Date (%m/%d/%y)

%e - Day of the month, blank-padded ( 1..31)

%F - Equivalent to %Y-%m-%d (the ISO 8601 date format)

%h - Equivalent to %b

%H - Hour of the day, 24-hour clock (00..23)

%I - Hour of the day, 12-hour clock (01..12)

%j - Day of the year (001..366)

%k - hour, 24-hour clock, blank-padded ( 0..23)

%l - hour, 12-hour clock, blank-padded ( 0..12)

%L - Millisecond of the second (000..999)

%m - Month of the year (01..12)

%M - Minute of the hour (00..59)

%n - Newline (n)

%N - Fractional seconds digits, default is 9 digits (nanosecond)

  • %3N millisecond (3 digits)

  • %6N microsecond (6 digits)

  • %9N nanosecond (9 digits)

%p - Meridian indicator (“AM” or “PM”)

%P - Meridian indicator (“am” or “pm”)

%r - time, 12-hour (same as %I:%M:%S %p)

%R - time, 24-hour (%H:%M)

%s - Number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.

%S - Second of the minute (00..60)

%t - Tab character (t)

%T - time, 24-hour (%H:%M:%S)

%u - Day of the week as a decimal, Monday being 1. (1..7)

%U - Week number of the current year, starting with the first Sunday as the first day of the first week (00..53)

%v - VMS date (%e-%b-%Y)

%V - Week number of year according to ISO 8601 (01..53)

%W - Week number of the current year, starting with the first Monday as the first day of the first week (00..53)

%w - Day of the week (Sunday is 0, 0..6)

%x - Preferred representation for the date alone, no time

%X - Preferred representation for the time alone, no date

%y - Year without a century (00..99)

%Y - Year with century

%z - Time zone as hour offset from UTC (e.g. +0900)

%Z - Time zone name

%% - Literal “%” character

t = Time.now                        #=> 2007-11-19 08:37:48 -0600
t.strftime("Printed on %m/%d/%Y")   #=> "Printed on 11/19/2007"
t.strftime("at %I:%M%p")            #=> "at 08:37AM"
April 3, 2019
0 thanks

OUTDATED!!!

Man, this stuff is so outdated. Be very careful using anything from here. A lot has changed since Ruby 1.9.

You’ll want to look at the updated docs, like here for Ruby 2.5.1:

ruby-doc.org/core-2.5.1/Time.html#method-i-strftime

They really should just take this site down if they’re not going to keep it updated. Probably does more harm than good now.

June 28, 2012
0 thanks

see also – similar methods

See also DateTime#strftime and Date#strftime . (They work similarly, but have different APIdock notes.)

February 25, 2009
0 thanks

Always a String

Remember that even if you ask for one field that is a number, a String will be returned:

Time.now.strftime("%j") #=> "055"