Time Formatting/Parsing

Go supports time formatting and parsing via pattern-based layouts.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"
)

func main() {
    p := fmt.Println

    // Here’s a basic example of formatting a time according
    // to RFC3339, using the corresponding layout constant.
    t := time.Now()
    p(t.Format(time.RFC3339))

    // Time parsing uses the same layout values as Format.
    t1, e := time.Parse(
        time.RFC3339,
        "2012-11-01T22:08:41+00:00")
    p(t1)

    // Format and Parse use example-based layouts.
    // Usually you’ll use a constant from time for these layouts
    // but you can also supply custom layouts.
    // Layouts must use the reference time Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 MST 2006
    // to show the pattern with which to format/parse a given time/string.
    // The example time must be exactly as shown: the year 2006
    // 15 for the hour, Monday for the day of the week, etc.
    p(t.Format("3:04PM"))
    p(t.Format("Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006"))
    p(t.Format("2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999-07:00"))
    form := "3 04 PM"
    t2, e := time.Parse(form, "8 41 PM")
    p(t2)

    // For purely numeric representations you can also use 
    // standard string formatting with the extracted components of the time value.
    fmt.Printf("%d-%02d-%02dT%02d:%02d:%02d-00:00\n",
        t.Year(), t.Month(), t.Day(),
        t.Hour(), t.Minute(), t.Second())

    // Parse will return an error on malformed input explaining the parsing problem.
    ansic := "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006"
    _, e = time.Parse(ansic, "8:41PM")
    p(e)
}

$ go run time-formatting-parsing.go 
2014-04-15T18:00:15-07:00
2012-11-01 22:08:41 +0000 +0000
6:00PM
Tue Apr 15 18:00:15 2014
2014-04-15T18:00:15.161182-07:00
0000-01-01 20:41:00 +0000 UTC
2014-04-15T18:00:15-00:00
parsing time "8:41PM" as "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006": ...