TAP datetime

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There are many, many, many date and time formats out there with various levels of accuracy, readability and parsability. To promote the use of a human-readable, machine parsable and unambiguous date time format, TAP output may follow the following standard for dates and times.

Contents

[edit] Status

This is a TAP proposal and has not been accepted.

[edit] For

[edit] Against

[edit] Usage

Date formatting is a particularly common and contentious issue with so many formats to choose from and many layers of precision within each. This proposal establishes a baseline date format for TAP producers. It is encouraged that dates emitted in TAP diagnostics will use this format to help with parsability, readability, disambiguation and interoperability.

That a given TAP field contains a TAP datetime should be worked out between the parties. This may be addressed in a future version.

On the other hand, the TAP metadata information must use this format.

[edit] Grammar

The TAP datetime is effectively RFC 3339. It remains a subset of ISO 8601 2004. 

   tap_datetime        = rfc_3339_date " " rfc_3339_time   |
                         rfc_3339_date                     |
                         rfc_3339_time                     |
                         rfc_3339_datetime
   rfc_3339_date       = As RFC 3339 section 5.6 "full-date"
   rfc_3339_time       = As RFC 3339 section 5.6 "full-time"
   rfc_3339_datetime   = As RFC 3339 section 5.6 "date-time"

[edit] Differences from RFC 3339

  • It is encouraged, for human readability, that applications drop the "T" separating date and time.
  • TAP datetime allows just a date or just a time.

[edit] Examples

These examples use the preferred space separated format with time zone. 

   2007-09-01 07:09:01Z            (Sept 1st, 2007, 07:09:01 UTC)
   2007-09-01 00:09:01-07          (Sept 1st, 2007, 00:09:01 PDT)

Here's an example of an rfc_3339_time with time zone information. 

   00:09-07                        (00:09 PDT)

This is an rfc_3339_datetime. 

   2007-09-01T07:09:01Z            (Sept 1st, 2007, 07:09:01 UTC)

Here's an example of using the TAP datetime in a TAP diagnostic 

   not ok 1 - date of the par-tay
     ---
     found:  2007-09-01
     wanted: 2007-09-02
     ...


[edit] References

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