09 Jun 2026 04:39 UTC 2026160+04:39 UTC

The following table gives examples of date range specifications for the Pharos environmental data collection system. As you can see, lots of different date specifiers will work; we've tried to make the available formats as intuitive as possible.

The first column lists an example date specification, while the second column gives a brief description of what is meant by the example. The third and fourth columns give the beginning and ending times that result from the example, and the last column indicates the number of days in the range.

Some notes about date specifiers:

  • Months always appear before the day (i.e., 01/31/1997, not 31/01/1997)
  • Only slashes (/) or dots (.) can be used to separate month, day, and year (e.g., 01/31/1997 or 01.31.1997)
  • Ranges of dates can be specified using dashes or commas


In the "try one" box you can enter your own date specification to see what the results will be.


It is now:

Example Description         Results
Start End Days
03/17/97-03/23/97 range of dates 17-Mar-97 00:00 23-Mar-97 23:59 7
10/31/95,+4d Oct 31, 1995 and four following days 31-Oct-95 00:00 04-Nov-95 23:59 5
10/31/95,+96h same as above 31-Oct-95 00:00 04-Nov-95 23:59 5
02/14/94,-5d Feb 14, 1994 and five previous days 09-Feb-94 00:00 14-Feb-94 23:59 6
03/17/97 single day (mm/dd/yyyy or mm/dd/yy) 17-Mar-97 00:00 17-Mar-97 23:59 1
03.17.1997 dots okay (mm.dd.yyyy or mm.dd.yy) 17-Mar-97 00:00 17-Mar-97 23:59 1
11/96 calendar month (mm/yyyy or mm/yy) 01-Nov-96 00:00 30-Nov-96 23:59 30
11.1996 dots okay (mm.yyyy or mm.yy) 01-Nov-96 00:00 30-Nov-96 23:59 30
1996.11 4-digit year can go first (yyyy.mm) 01-Nov-96 00:00 30-Nov-96 23:59 30
01/95-12/95 Calendar 1995 01-Jan-95 00:00 31-Dec-95 23:59 365
01/96-12/96 Leap years okay 01-Jan-96 00:00 31-Dec-96 23:59 366
1996 Calendar 1996 01-Jan-96 00:00 31-Dec-96 23:59 366
05/95-08/95 May 1995-Aug 1995 01-May-95 00:00 31-Aug-95 23:59 123
1996-1997 Calendar 1996-1997 01-Jan-96 00:00 31-Dec-97 23:59 731
03/01/96-02/01/96 time warps (backwards) okay 01-Feb-96 00:00 01-Mar-96 23:59 30
now "right now" 09-Jun-26 04:39 09-Jun-26 04:40 0.000694444
now,-12h 12 hours prior to now 08-Jun-26 16:39 09-Jun-26 04:39 0.5
now,-7d 7 days prior to now 02-Jun-26 04:39 09-Jun-26 04:39 7
yesterday yesterday 08-Jun-26 00:00 08-Jun-26 23:59 1
today today 09-Jun-26 00:00 09-Jun-26 23:59 1
tomorrow tomorrow 10-Jun-26 00:00 10-Jun-26 23:59 1
today,-7d today and seven previous days 02-Jun-26 00:00 09-Jun-26 23:59 8
tomorrow,-2d tomorrow, today, and yesterday 08-Jun-26 00:00 10-Jun-26 23:59 3
thismonth current calendar month 01-Jun-26 00:00 30-Jun-26 23:59 30
lastmonth previous calendar month 01-May-26 00:00 31-May-26 23:59 31
nextmonth following calendar month 01-Jul-26 00:00 31-Jul-26 23:59 31
thisweek current week (Mon-Sun) 08-Jun-26 00:00 14-Jun-26 23:59 7
lastweek previous week (Mon-Sun) 01-Jun-26 00:00 07-Jun-26 23:59 7
1997031+1436 standard format (yyyyjjj+hhmm) 31-Jan-97 14:36 31-Jan-97 14:36 0.000694444
1997031 24-hr day format (yyyyjjj) 31-Jan-97 00:00 31-Jan-97 23:59 1
970351524 short format w/ time (yyjjjhhmm) 04-Feb-97 15:24 04-Feb-97 15:24 0.000694444
97035 24-hr short format (yyjjj) 04-Feb-97 00:00 04-Feb-97 23:59 1
1996166+1400,+6h 6 hours beg. 14-Jun-96 14:00 14-Jun-96 14:00 14-Jun-96 19:59 0.25
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