How to Get Date in YYYYMMDD Format Using a Windows Batch File

Discover how to easily obtain the date in YYYYMMDD format using a Windows batch file with simple code examples and explanations.
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Understanding how to manipulate dates is a crucial part of scripting and automation tasks. In Windows batch scripting, you may need to format the current date in YYYYMMDD (Year-Month-Day) format for tasks such as logging, naming files, or passing the date to other programs. This guide will guide you through the process of extracting and formatting the date to YYYYMMDD using a Windows batch file.

Step-by-Step Guide

Here's a straightforward method to get the current date in YYYYMMDD format in a Windows batch file:

Retrieve the Current Date

The first step is to get the current date. The date command in Windows CMD can be used, but it returns the date according to the system's regional settings. To handle this variability, you can use the wmic command:

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In this snippet, wmic os get localdatetime gets the current date and time in the format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.milliseconds±offset. The for loop extracts the date part (first 8 characters).

Store the Date in YYYYMMDD Format

Once you have the date string, it is already in the desired format:

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This will output the date as YYYYMMDD.

It's important to note that the wmic command can be relatively slow and is deprecated in newer versions of Windows. However, as of now, it remains widely usable.

Example Batch Script

Combining the above snippets, here's a complete batch script that retrieves and displays the date in YYYYMMDD format:

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When you run this script, it will output the current date as follows:

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Conclusion

Using batch scripts to manipulate the date can streamline many of your automation tasks. The method shown above is a reliable way to consistently extract the date in YYYYMMDD format regardless of regional settings. Keep this technique in your scripting toolbox for whenever you need date formatting in your batch files.

This guide provides the foundational steps. Adapt and expand upon this base to suit your specific scripting needs or integrate it into larger batch automation tasks. Happy scripting!