PowerShell Commands

Get-Date

Get-Date [[-Date] <DateTime>] [-Day <Int32>] [-DisplayHint {Date | Time | DateTime}] [-Format <String>] [-Hour<Int32>] [-Millisecond <Int32>] [-Minute <Int32>] [-Month <Int32>] [-Second <Int32>] [-Year <Int32>][<CommonParameters>]
Get-Date [[-Date] <DateTime>] [-Day <Int32>] [-DisplayHint {Date | Time | DateTime}] [-Hour <Int32>] [-Millisecond<Int32>] [-Minute <Int32>] [-Month <Int32>] [-Second <Int32>] [-UFormat <String>] [-Year <Int32>][<CommonParameters>]

The Get-Date cmdlet gets a DateTime object that represents the current date or a date that you specify. It can format the date and time in several Windows and UNIX formats. You can use Get-Date to generate a date or time character string, and then send the string to other cmdlets or programs.

Parameters

-Date <DateTime>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input ByPropertyName

Specifies a date and time. By default, Get-Date gets the current system date and time.

Type the date in a format that is standard for the system locale, such as dd-MM-yyyy (German [Germany]) or MM/dd/yyyy (English [United States]).

-Day <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the day of the month that is displayed. Enter a value from 1 to 31. The default is the current day.

If you specify a value that is greater than the number of days in the month, Windows PowerShell adds the number of days to the month and displays the result. For instance, `Get-Date -Month 2 -Day 31` displays March 3, not February 31.

-DisplayHint <DisplayHintType>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Determines which elements of the date and time are displayed. The acceptable values for this parameter are:

- Date. Displays only the date. - Time. Displays only the time. - DateTime. Displays the date and time.

DateTime is the default. This parameter does not affect the DateTime object that Get-Date gets.

-Format <String>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Displays the date and time in the Microsoft .NET Framework format indicated by the format specifier. Enter a format specifier. For a list of available format specifiers, see DateTimeFormatInfo Classhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/library/system.globalization.datetimeformatinfo.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/system.globalization.datetimeformatinfo.aspx) in MSDN.

When you use the Format parameter, Windows PowerShell gets only the properties of the DateTime object that it needs to display the date in the format that you specify. As a result, some of the properties and methods of DateTime objects might not be available.

Starting in Windows PowerShell 5.0, you can use the following additional formats as values for the Format parameter.

- FileDate. A file or path-friendly representation of the current date in local time. It is in the form of yyyymmdd ( using 4 digits, 2 digits, and 2 digits). An example of results when you use this format is 20150302.

- FileDateUniversal. A file or path-friendly representation of the current date in universal time. It is in the form of yyyymmdd + 'Z' (using 4 digits, 2 digits, and 2 digits). An example of results when you use this format is 20150302Z.

- FileDateTime. A file or path-friendly representation of the current date and time in local time, in 24-hour format. It is in the form of yyyymmdd + 'T' + hhmmssmsms, where msms is a four-character representation of milliseconds. An example of results when you use this format is 20150302T1240514987.

- FileDateTimeUniversal. A file or path-friendly representation of the current date and time in universal time, in 24-hour format. It is in the form of yyyymmdd + 'T' + hhmmssmsms, where msms is a four-character representation of milliseconds, + 'Z'. An example of results when you use this format is 20150302T0840539947Z.

-Hour <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the hour that is displayed. Enter a value from 1 to 23. The default is the current hour.

-Millisecond <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the milliseconds in the date. Enter a value from 0 to 999. The default is the current number of milliseconds.

This parameter was introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.

-Minute <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the minute that is displayed. Enter a value from 1 to 59. The default value is the current minutes.

-Month <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the month that is displayed. Enter a value from 1 to 12. The default is the current month.

-Second <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the second that is displayed. Enter a value from 1 to 59. The default is the current second.

-UFormat <String>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Displays the date and time in UNIX format. For a list of the format specifiers, see the Notes section.

When you use the UFormat parameter, Windows PowerShell gets only the properties of the DateTime object that it needs to display the date in the format that you specify. As a result, some of the properties and methods of DateTime objects might not be available.

-Year <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the year that is displayed. Enter a value from 1 to 9999. The default is the current year.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable.

Inputs
None
You cannot pipe input to this cmdlet.
Outputs
System.DateTime or System.String
When you use the Format or UFormat parameters, Get-Date returns a string. Otherwise, it returns a DateTime object.
Examples
  1. Get the date and display it:
    PS C:\> Get-Date -DisplayHint Date
    Tuesday, June 13, 2006
    

    This command gets a DateTime object, but it displays only the date. It uses the DisplayHint parameter to indicate that only the date is to be displayed.

  2. Get the date and time in short format:
    PS C:\> Get-Date -Format g
    6/13/2006 12:43 PM
    

    This command gets the current date and time and formats it in short-date and short-time format. It uses the .NET Framework g format specifier (General [short date and short time]) to specify the format.

  3. Get the date and time in UNIX format:
    PS C:\> Get-Date -UFormat "%Y / %m / %d / %A / %Z"
    2006 / 06 / 13 / Tuesday / -07
    

    This command gets the current date and time and formats it as specified by the command. In this case, the format includes the full year (%Y), the two-digit numeric month (%m), the date (%d), the full day of the week (%A), and the offset from UTC (Zulu).

  4. Get the day of the year for the current date:
    PS C:\> (Get-Date -Year 2000 -Month 12 -Day 31).DayOfYear
    366
    

    This command displays the day of the year for the current date. For example, December 31 is the 365th day of 2006, but it is the 366th day of 2000.

  5. Determine whether the date and time are adjusted for Daylight Saving Time:
    PS C:\> $A = Get-Date
    PS C:\> $A.IsDaylightSavingTime()
    True
    

    These commands tell you whether the current date and time are adjusted for daylight saving time in the current locale.

    The first command creates a variable named $A, and then assigns the object retrieved by Get-Date to the $A variable. Then, it uses the IsDaylightSavingTime method on the object in $A.

    To see the properties and methods of the DateTime object, type:

    `Get-Date | Get-Member`.

  6. Convert the current date and time to UTC time:
    PS C:\> $A = Get-Date
    PS C:\> $A.ToUniversalTime()
    Tuesday, June 13, 2006 8:09:19 PM
    

    These commands convert the current date and time to UTC time.

    The first command creates a variable named $A, and then assigns the object retrieved by Get-Date to the $A variable. Then, it uses the ToUniversalTime method on the object in $A.

  7. Convert a WMI DATETIME object to a .NET Framework DateTime object:
    PS C:\> $A = Get-WmiObject Win32_Bios -Computer Server01
    PS C:\> $A | Format-List -Property Name, @{Label="BIOS Age";Expression={(Get-Date) - $_.ConvertToDateTime($_.ReleaseDate)}}
    Name     : Default System BIOS
    BIOS Age : 1345.17:31:07.1091047
    
       Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) uses a different DATETIME object than the .NET Framework DateTime object 
       that Get-Date returns. To use DATETIME information from WMI in a command with DateTime information from Get-Date , 
       you have to use the ConvertToDateTime method to convert WMI CIM_DATETIME objects to .NET Framework DateTime 
       objects.

    The commands in this example display the name and age of the BIOS on a remote computer, Server01.

    The first command uses the Get-WmiObject cmdlet to get an instance of the Win32_BIOS class on Server01 and then stores it in the $A variable.

    The second command uses the pipeline operator (|) to send the WMI object stored in $A to the Format-List cmdlet. The Property parameter of Format-List specifies two properties to display in the list, Name and BIOS Age. The BIOS Age property is specified in a hash table. The table includes the Label key, which specifies the name of the property, and the Expression key, which contains the expression that calculates the BIOS age. The expression uses the ConvertToDateTime method to convert each instance of ReleaseDate to a .NET Framework DateTime object. Then, the value is subtracted from the value of the Get-Date cmdlet, which, without parameters, gets the current date.

  8. Get the long date and long time format for the current date and time:
    PS C:\> Get-Date
    Tuesday, June 13, 2006 12:43:42 PM
    

    This command gets a DateTime object and displays the current date and time in the long date and long time formats for the system locale, as though you typed `Get-Date -Format F`.

  9. Convert a DateTime object to a string and add it to a file:
    PS C:\> Get-Date
    Tuesday, September 26, 2006 11:25:31 AM PS C:\> (Get-Date).ToString()
    9/26/2006 11:25:31 AM PS C:\> Get-Date | Add-Content Test.txt
    # Adds 9/26/2006 11:25:31 AM PS C:\> Get-Date -Format F | Add-Content Test.txt
    # Adds Tuesday, September 26, 2006 11:25:31 AM
    

    These commands demonstrate how to use Get-Date with Add-Content and other cmdlets that convert the DateTime object that Get-Date generates to a string.

    The first command shows that the default display from a Get-Date command is in long-date and long-time format.

    The second command shows that the default display from the ToString() method of the DateTime object is in short-date and short-time format.

    The third command uses a pipeline operator to send the DateTime object to the Add-Content cmdlet, which adds the content to the Test.txt file. Because Add-Content uses the ToString() method of the DateTime object, the date that is added is in short-date and short-time format.

    The fourth command uses the Format parameter of Get-Date to specify the format. When you use the Format or UFormat parameters, Get-Date generates a string, not a DateTime object. Then, when you send the string to Add-Content , it adds the string to the Test.txt file without changing it.

  10. Create a timestamp to use to name a directory:
    1. The first command uses the *Format* parameter with a value of o to generate a timestamp string.:
      PS C:\> Get-Date -Format o
      2012-03-08T10:55:55.6083839-08:00
      

      The first command uses the *Format* parameter with a value of o to generate a timestamp string.

    2. The second command prepares the timestamp to be used in a directory name:
      PS C:\> $TimeStamp = Get-Date -Format o | foreach {$_ -replace ":", "."}
      

      The command replaces the colon characters (:) in the string with dots (.) and saves the result in the $TimeStamp variable. Replacing the colons prevents the characters that precede each colon from being interpreted as a drive name.

    3. The third command uses the Mkdir function to create a directory with the name in the $TimeStamp variable:
      PS C:\> mkdir C:\ps-test\$TimeStamp
      Directory: C:\ps-test
      
         Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
         ----                -------------     ------ ----
         d----          3/8/2012  11:01 AM            2012-03-08T11.00.24.4192623-08.00

      This example shows how to use the Get-Date cmdlet to create a timestamp and how to use the timestamp in or as part of a directory name.

Additional Notes
 * By default, the date-time is displayed in long-date and long-time formats for the system locale.

 When you pipe a date to cmdlets that expect string input, such as the Add-Content cmdlet, Windows PowerShell 
 converts the DateTime object to a string before adding it to the file. The default ToString() format is short 
 date and long time. To specify an alternate format, use the Format or UFormat parameter of Get-Date .

 Uformat Values:

 The following are the values of the UFormat parameter. The format for the command is:

 Get-Date -UFormat %

 For example,

 Get-Date -UFormat %d

 Date-Time:

 Date and time - full

 (default) (Friday, June 16, 2006 10:31:27 AM)

 c     Date and time - abbreviated (Fri Jun 16 10:31:27 2006)
 Date:

 D    Date in mm/dd/yy format (06/14/06)

 x    Date in standard format for locale (09/12/07 for English-US)

 Year:

 C   Century (20 for 2006)

 Y   Year in 4-digit format (2006)

 y   Year in 2-digit format (06)

 G   Same as 'Y'

 g   Same as 'y'

 Month:

 b   Month name - abbreviated (Jan)

 B   Month name - full (January)

 h   Same as 'b'

 m   Month number (06)

 Week:

 W  Week of the year (00-52)

 V   Week of the year (01-53)

 U   Same as 'W'

 Day:

 a   Day of the week - abbreviated name (Mon)

 A   Day of the week - full name (Monday)

 u   Day of the week - number (Monday = 1)

 d   Day of the month - 2 digits (05)

 e   Day of the month - digit preceded by a space ( 5)

 j    Day of the year - (1-366)

 w   Same as 'u'

 Time:

 p   AM or PM

 r   Time in 12-hour format (09:15:36 AM)

 R   Time in 24-hour format - no seconds (17:45)

 T   Time in 24 hour format (17:45:52)

 X   Same as 'T'

 Z   Time zone offset from Universal Time Coordinate (UTC) (-07)

 Hour:

 H   Hour in 24-hour format (17)

 I    Hour in 12 hour format (05)

 k   Same as 'H'

 l    Same as 'I' (Upper-case I = Lower-case L)

 Minutes & Seconds:

 M   Minutes (35)

 S   Seconds (05)

 s   Seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 (1150451174.95705)

 Special Characters:

 n   newline character (\n)

 t   Tab character (\t)

 *

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. It is attributed to Microsoft Corporation and can be found here.

PowerShell Commands