Go datetime format
last modified April 11, 2024
In this article we show how to format datetime values in Golang.
In Go, we use the time.Format function to format datetime values.
func (t Time) Format(layout string) string
The function returns a textual representation of the time value formatted according to the layout defined by the argument
Go does not use the usual approach of using format specifiers such as
yyyy-mm-dd to format datetime values. Instead, it uses a uniqe
datetime value of Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 MST 2006. So in order to
format a datetime value, we choose a specific layout of this fixed datetime.
const (
Layout = "01/02 03:04:05PM '06 -0700"
ANSIC = "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006"
UnixDate = "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006"
RubyDate = "Mon Jan 02 15:04:05 -0700 2006"
RFC822 = "02 Jan 06 15:04 MST"
RFC822Z = "02 Jan 06 15:04 -0700"
RFC850 = "Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST"
RFC1123 = "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST"
RFC1123Z = "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700"
RFC3339 = "2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00"
RFC3339Nano = "2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00"
Kitchen = "3:04PM"
// Handy time stamps.
Stamp = "Jan _2 15:04:05"
StampMilli = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000"
StampMicro = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000000"
StampNano = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000000000"
)
There are several predefined layouts in the time module available.
$ go version go version go1.22.2 linux/amd64
We use Go version 1.22.2.
Go datetime format example
In the first example, we format the current datetime.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
func main() {
now := time.Now()
fmt.Println("Time: ", now.Format("15:04:05"))
fmt.Println("Short date:", now.Format("Jan 2, 2006"))
fmt.Println("Long date:", now.Format("Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 2006"))
}
We get the current datetime with time.Now function and format it
in three ways utilizing the Format function.
$ go run main.go Time: 18:10:34 Short date: May 29, 2022 Long date: Sun May 29 18:10:34 2022
Go predefined datetime formats
In the time package, there are several predefined time formats.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
func main() {
now := time.Now()
fmt.Println("ANSIC:", now.Format(time.ANSIC))
fmt.Println("Layout:", now.Format(time.Layout))
fmt.Println("RFC1123:", now.Format(time.RFC1123))
fmt.Println("RFC1123Z:", now.Format(time.RFC1123Z))
fmt.Println("Kitchen:", now.Format(time.Kitchen))
fmt.Println("RFC3339:", now.Format(time.RFC3339))
fmt.Println("RFC3339Nano:", now.Format(time.RFC3339Nano))
fmt.Println("RFC822:", now.Format(time.RFC822))
fmt.Println("RFC822Z:", now.Format(time.RFC822Z))
fmt.Println("RFC850:", now.Format(time.RFC850))
fmt.Println("RubyDate:", now.Format(time.RubyDate))
fmt.Println("UnixDate:", now.Format(time.UnixDate))
fmt.Println("RFC1123:", now.Format(time.RFC1123))
fmt.Println("RFC1123Z:", now.Format(time.RFC1123Z))
}
The example uses fourteen predefined formats.
$ go run main.go ANSIC: Sun May 29 18:15:38 2022 Layout: 05/29 06:15:38PM '22 +0200 RFC1123: Sun, 29 May 2022 18:15:38 CEST RFC1123Z: Sun, 29 May 2022 18:15:38 +0200 Kitchen: 6:15PM RFC3339: 2022-05-29T18:15:38+02:00 RFC3339Nano: 2022-05-29T18:15:38.753172438+02:00 RFC822: 29 May 22 18:15 CEST RFC822Z: 29 May 22 18:15 +0200 RFC850: Sunday, 29-May-22 18:15:38 CEST RubyDate: Sun May 29 18:15:38 +0200 2022 UnixDate: Sun May 29 18:15:38 CEST 2022 RFC1123: Sun, 29 May 2022 18:15:38 CEST RFC1123Z: Sun, 29 May 2022 18:15:38 +0200
Go time format stamps
There are also predefined timestamp formats.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
func main() {
now := time.Now()
fmt.Println("Stamp:", now.Format(time.Stamp))
fmt.Println("StampMicro:", now.Format(time.StampMicro))
fmt.Println("StampMilli:", now.Format(time.StampMilli))
fmt.Println("StampNano:", now.Format(time.StampNano))
}
The example prints the current time in four available timestamps.
$ go run main.go Stamp: May 29 18:20:00 StampMicro: May 29 18:20:00.571331 StampMilli: May 29 18:20:00.571 StampNano: May 29 18:20:00.571331153
Source
In this article we have worked with date and time in Go.
Author
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