os.date
Lua function os.date Summary Formats a date/time string Prototype `s = os.date (format, time)` Description `Returns a string with the date and time formatted according to the format given. If no time is supplied defaults to the current time. The format string can consist of "*t" on its own, or literal strings, mixed with the following directives:
    %a - Abbreviated weekday name (eg. Wed)
    %A - Full weekday name (eg. Wednesday)
    %b - Abbreviated month name (eg. Sep)
    %B - Full month name (eg. September)
    %c - Date and time representation appropriate for locale (eg. 23/04/07 10:20:41)
             (Standard date and time string )
    %d - Day of month as decimal number (01 - 31)
    %H - Hour in 24-hour format (00 - 23)
    %I - Hour in 12-hour format (01 - 12)
    %j - Day of year as decimal number (001 - 366)
    %m - Month as decimal number (01 - 12)
    %M - Minute as decimal number (00 - 59)
    %p - Current locale’s A.M./P.M. indicator for 12-hour clock (eg. AM/PM)
    %S - Second as decimal number (00 - 59)
    %U - Week of year as decimal number, with Sunday as first day of week 1 (00 - 53)
    %w - Weekday as decimal number (0 - 6; Sunday is 0)
    %W - Week of year as decimal number, with Monday as first day of week 1 (00 - 53)
    %x - Date representation for current locale (Standard date string)
    %X - Time representation for current locale (Standard time string)
    %y - Year without century, as decimal number (00 - 99)  (eg. 07)
    %Y - Year with century, as decimal number (eg. 2007)
    %Z - Time-zone name or abbreviation; no characters if time zone is unknown
    %% - Percent sign
If you use "*t" you get a table consisting of: sec (0 to 59) min (0 to 59) hour (0 to 23) day (1 to 31) month (1 to 12) year (1900 onwards) wday (Sunday is 1, Monday is 2 etc.) yday (January 1st is 1, etc.) isdst (true if Daylight Savings Time) Examples:
    print (os.date ("%x")) --> 25/04/07
    print (os.date ("%c")) --> 25/04/07 10:10:05
    print (os.date ("%A, %m %B %Y")) --> Wednesday, 04 April 2007

    t = os.date ("*t") --> produces a table like this:

      t.sec=18
      t.min=13
      t.hour=10
      t.day=25
      t.month=4
      t.year=2007
      t.wday=4
      t.yday=115
      t.isdst=false
Locate note - it seems that doing this helps set the locale appropriately:
    os.setlocale ("", "time")
` See Also ... Topics Lua base functions Lua bc (big number) functions Lua bit manipulation functions Lua coroutine functions Lua debug functions Lua io functions Lua math functions Lua os functions Lua package functions Lua PCRE regular expression functions Lua script extensions Lua string functions Lua table functions Lua utilities Scripting Lua functions os.clock (Amount of CPU time used) os.difftime (Calculates a time difference in seconds) os.execute (Executes an operating system command) os.exit (Attempts to terminate the process) os.getenv (Returns an operating system environment variable) os.remove (Deletes a file) os.rename (Renames a file) os.setlocale (Sets the current locale to the supplied locale) os.time (Returns the current time or calculates the time in seconds from a table) os.tmpname (Returns a name for a temporary file) (Help topic: lua=os.date) Documentation contents page