FORMAT controls the output. Interpreted sequences are:
| Sequence | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| %% | a literal % | % |
| %a | locale's abbreviated weekday name | Sun |
| %A | locale's full weekday name | Sunday |
| %b | locale's abbreviated month name | Jan |
| %B | locale's full month name | January |
| %c | locale's date and time | Thu Mar 3 23:05:25 2005 |
| %C | century; like %Y, except omit last two digits | 20 |
| %d | day of month | 01 |
| %D | date; same as %m/%d/%y | 12/31/99 |
| %e | day of month, space padded; same as %_d | 3 |
| %F | full date; same as %Y-%m-%d | 2005-03-03 |
| %g | last two digits of year of ISO week number (see %G) | 05 |
| %G | year of ISO week number (see %V); normally useful only with %V | 2005 |
| %h | same as %b | Jan |
| %H | hour (00..23) | 23 |
| %I | hour (01..12) | 11 |
| %j | day of year (001..366) | 062 |
| %k | hour, space padded ( 0..23); same as %_H | 3 |
| %l | hour, space padded ( 1..12); same as %_I | 9 |
| %m | month (01..12) | 03 |
| %M | minute (00..59) | 30 |
| %n | a newline | \n |
| %N | nanoseconds (000000000..999999999) | 123456789 |
| %p | locale's equivalent of either AM or PM; blank if not known | PM |
| %P | like %p, but lower case | pm |
| %q | quarter of year (1..4) | 1 |
| %r | locale's 12-hour clock time | 11:11:04 PM |
| %R | 24-hour hour and minute; same as %H:%M | 23:30 |
| %s | seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1615432800 |
| %S | second (00..60) | 30 |
| %t | a tab | \t |
| %T | time; same as %H:%M:%S | 23:30:30 |
| %u | day of week (1..7); 1 is Monday | 4 |
| %U | week number of year, with Sunday as first day of week (00..53) | 10 |
| %V | ISO week number, with Monday as first day of week (01..53) | 12 |
| %w | day of week (0..6); 0 is Sunday | 4 |
| %W | week number of year, with Monday as first day of week (00..53) | 11 |
| %x | locale's date representation | 03/03/2005 |
| %X | locale's time representation | 23:30:30 |
| %y | last two digits of year (00..99) | 05 |
| %Y | year | 2005 |
| %z | +hhmm numeric time zone | -0400 |
| %:z | +hh:mm numeric time zone | -04:00 |
| %::z | +hh:mm:ss numeric time zone | -04:00:00 |
| %:::z | numeric time zone with : to necessary precision | -04, +05:30 |
| %Z | alphabetic time zone abbreviation | EDT |
By default, date pads numeric fields with zeroes. The following optional flags may follow '%':
-(hyphen) do not pad the field_(underscore) pad with spaces0(zero) pad with zeros^use upper case if possible#use opposite case if possible
After any flags comes an optional field width, as a decimal number; then an optional modifier, which is either E to use the locale's alternate representations if available, or O to use the locale's alternate numeric symbols if available.
Examples: Convert seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 UTC) to a date
date --date='@2147483647'
Show the time on the west coast of the US (use tzselect(1) to find TZ)
TZ='America/Los_Angeles' date