Very Computer

by **g_spe..** » Sat, 09 Sep 2000 00:22:50

Is there a way to pass a variable to the `date` function or another
function that would return a specific value based upon the format I
request?

Ex.
If I pass "8" I would want the function to return "Aug" for August
If I pass "09072000" I want `Thursday` returned.

so on and so forth.

Gary Sperano

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Before you buy.

by **Mason** » Sat, 09 Sep 2000 03:39:14

>Is there a way to pass a variable to the `date` function or another
>function that would return a specific value based upon the format I
>request?

>Ex.
> If I pass "8" I would want the function to return "Aug" for August
> If I pass "09072000" I want `Thursday` returned.

>so on and so forth.

start with man cal
do some parsing using awk, grep, cut, ...
and hopefully you'll get what you want.

by **Ken Pizzi** » Sat, 09 Sep 2000 17:04:33

>Is there a way to pass a variable to the `date` function or another
>function that would return a specific value based upon the format I
>request?

>Ex.
> If I pass "8" I would want the function to return "Aug" for August
> If I pass "09072000" I want `Thursday` returned.

>so on and so forth.

This is easy using mktime
(http://www.interlog.com/~john/technogeek/source/mktime):
mktime -m 8 -F %b
mktime -m 09 -d 07 -y 2000 -F %A

or GNU's implementation of date
(mirrors of ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sh-utils/):
date -d 8/1 +%b
date -d '2000-09-07' +%A

How to go about generalizing the mktime example is, I think,
clear enough; the GNU date version is probably less obvious,
so I'll show it:
date -d "$month/1" +%b
date -d "$year-$month-$day" +%A

As to the magic "%b" and "%A" formats --- I'll leave you to
the documentation.

--Ken Pizzini

Very Computer

passing a variable to the `date` command

passing a variable to the `date` command

passing a variable to the `date` command

passing a variable to the `date` command