5.7 Format Strings

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A common standard (based on strftime) for specifying a date format string will replace any %X special characters with specific components from the date (and time). For example, based on the result of a call to the function lubridate::now(), which is Tuesday, 1 September 2026, 17:06:35 PM, the format is %A, %e %B %Y, %H:%M:%S %p.

The format strings that are available include:

  • %a \(\longrightarrow\) Tue (3 char day name)
  • %A \(\longrightarrow\) Tuesday (full day name)
  • %b \(\longrightarrow\) Sep (3 char month name)
  • %B \(\longrightarrow\) September (full month name)
  • %d \(\longrightarrow\) 01 (01-31 leading 0 numeric day of month)
  • %e \(\longrightarrow\) 1 (1-31 numeric day of month)
  • %H \(\longrightarrow\) 17 (00-23 numeric 24 hours)
  • %I \(\longrightarrow\) 05 (01-11 numeric 12 hours)
  • %-I \(\longrightarrow\) 5 (1-11 numeric hours no leading 0)
  • %m \(\longrightarrow\) 09 (01-12 numeric month)
  • %M \(\longrightarrow\) 06 (00-59 numeric minutes)
  • %p \(\longrightarrow\) PM (AM,PM upper morning or afternoon)
  • %P \(\longrightarrow\) pm (am,pm lower morning or afternoon)
  • %S \(\longrightarrow\) 35 (00-60 numeric seconds)
  • %-S \(\longrightarrow\) 35 (0-60 numeric seconds no leading 0)
  • %y \(\longrightarrow\) 26 (00-99 2 digit year)
  • %Y \(\longrightarrow\) 2026 (4 digit year)
  • %Z \(\longrightarrow\) AEST (time zone)

A good resource is Fabrizio Musacchio’s strftime Cheat Sheet


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