How to create a folder with name as current date in batch (.bat) files

Question

I don't know much about windows .bat file syntax. My simple requirement is to create a folder at a specific location with name as current date. I tried searching this on google but didn't get any good option. Is there any way to do this?

Solution 1

Try this (an equivalent of bash backquotes):

for /f "tokens=1* delims=" %%a in ('date /T') do set datestr=%%a
mkdir %datestr%

For further information, see http://ss64.com/nt/for_cmd.html

Solution 2

mkdir %date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~7,2%

Solution 3

Quick and dirty: If you can live with the date being UTC instead of local, you can use:

for /f "skip=1" %%d in ('wmic os get localdatetime') do if not defined mydate set mydate=%%d
md %mydate:~0,8%

Works in all locales. Only on XP and higher, though.

Solution 4

You need to get rid of the '/' characters in the date before you can use it in mkdir like this:

setlocal enableextensions
set name=%DATE:/=_%
mkdir %name%

Solution 5

If you want mm-dd-yyyy format you can use:

mkdir %date:~-10,2%"-"%date:~7,2%"-"%date:~-4,4%

View more solutions

Comments

[feeela]

Does this answer your question? How do I get current date/time on the Windows command line in a suitable format for usage in a file/folder name?

[Ramesh Soni]

@Blorgbeard this is creating folder with name T2011 where 2011 is year. I am using WindowsXp but not sure why there is not month and day in it.

[Ramesh Soni]

surprisingly this is creating folder with name T2011. There is not month and day in it.

[Blorgbeard]

@Ramesh, what does echo %date% output? It will depend on your regional settings - mine says "2011-03-30"

[Blorgbeard]

Heavily dependent on regional settings

[Ramesh Soni]

@Blorgbeard even the folder name is created as T2011. I am using standard US English culture. Is there anything I am missing?

[Blorgbeard]

@Ramesh, does echo %date% output T2011 and nothing else?

[Simon G.]

If you echo %DATE% you should see the current date. The format depends on the international locale settings. If you want this bat file to run anywhere, you'll need to do something complicated.I assumed it was a day, month, and year separated by a / character. Since you have a T in the result, I guess it is not. What is it?

[Simon G.]

Having thought about it for a few minutes and googled a bit, this method using JavaScript should work wherever you are in the world: echo var D = new Date() > tmp.js echo D = (D.getFullYear()*100+D.getMonth()+1)*100+D.getDate() >> tmp.js echo WScript.Echo( 'set YYYYMMDD='+D ) >> tmp.js echo @echo off > tmp.bat cscript //nologo tmp.js >> tmp.bat call tmp.bat mkdir %YYYYMMDD%

[Simon G.]

well I can't get that to format properly - I will add a new answer

[Ramesh Soni]

@Blorgbeard yes just T2011 and nothing else.

[Blorgbeard]

@Ramesh OK, then I am stumped, sorry :) Simon's answer looks promising..

[Adriano Repetti]

To make it more easy: mkdir %date:/=%

[eckes]

@Adriano: impressive. Could you elaborate a bit on the :/= thing? Opened a question for this: stackoverflow.com/q/21032288/520162

[Bernhard Hofmann]

I'd +1 that if you used %TEMP% or %tmp% as the path and if you deleted the temporary files. :)

[mikequentel]

Excellent answer. To dynamically keep making new directories with date and time I used for /f "skip=1" %%d in ('wmic os get localdatetime') do set mydate=%%d followed by md %mydate%

[itsho]

@AdrianoRepetti: this command creates two subfolders on my machine - 03032015 and Tue

[Adriano Repetti]

@itsho date output is locale specific so you may need to adjust to your locale. If, for example, your output is 03/03/2015 Tue... then you'll create more than one folder (one for each "word" in date output string because final command will be something like mkdir 03032015 Tue). To fix this you can use eol= option (to set space as end of line, more robust one) or trimming environment variable using mkdir %date:~0,8%. You have other options too (character replacing, for example) but if you need a portable solution you should go with PowerShell...Hope this helps!

[itsho]

@AdrianoRepetti that was truly enlightening. thank you!

[jeb]

Here are a lot of nearly identical answers, some from 2013. I can't see where your answer adds any improvements. Btw your format even isn't good enough for a simple sort.

[jelde015]

There is improvement in that no one else had it in this format mm-dd-yyyy and when I was reading this page to find the solution for myself it was not obvious how to do so. That is why I decided to share my solution to anyone who wanted this date format styling so they too would not have to go through the trouble changing around these other solutions some of which don't even work. So thank you Jeb for your input but I have to disagree.

[Delmonte]

Correct command year-month-day: mkdir %date:~-4,4%"-"%date:~-7,2%"-"%date:~-10,2%

[PeterCo]

For format yyyy.mm.dd you would use mkdir %date:~-4,4%"."%date:~-7,2%"."%date:~0,2% (tested on german Win10)

[user7294900]

Why sqlplus ? it's irrelevant, also G:, please explain your solution

[rodolfoprado]

i changed a little bit, changing the substrings

[jeb]

Why? Not for me (and 90% of the world)

[rodolfoprado]

maybe my regional settings, works better this way; i dont get those "Fri " initial caracteres

[jeb]

This answer seems to be a duplicate, compare comment or Simon G.

[compski]

what happens if I want the date to be 'ddmmyy' instead?