The default representation of dates is a compact string such as `20211002153802059`. For example, the `created` and `modified` fields are stored like this.
The display format for this string can be controlled with a template. For example, transcluding the `modified` field automatically applies a template to display the date as `Sat Oct 02 2021 17:40:50 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time)`. A few widgets and filter operators allow you to manually specify a template, for example the ViewWidget:
|`TIMESTAMP` |<<.from-version "5.2.4">> Number of milliseconds since the [[ECMAScript epoch|https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Date#the_ecmascript_epoch_and_timestamps]], 1 January 1970. |
|`\x` |Used to escape a character that would otherwise have special meaning |
|`[UTC]`|Time-shift the represented date to UTC. Must be at very start of format string|
Note that other text is passed through unchanged, allowing commas, colons or other separators to be used.
The `{era:BCE||CE}` notation can specify different strings for years that are negative, zero or positive. For example `{era:BC|Z|AD}` would display `BC` for negative years, `AD` for positive years, and `Z` for year zero.
! Examples
|!Template |!Output |
|`DDth MMM YYYY` |16th February 2011 |
|`DDth MMM \M\M\M YYYY` |16th February MMM 2011 |
|`DDth mmm YYYY 0hh:0mm:0ss` |16th Feb 2011 11:38:42 |
You can calculate the difference between two dates by doing the following:
# Convert both dates to timestamps
# Subtract the later date from the earlier one -- if you don't know which one is earlier use the <<.olink "abs">> operator to get an absolute value after subtraction
# Divide the resulting number by the number of milliseconds in your chosen interval
Here is an example of calculating the number of days that passed between creation and last modification of current tiddler:
