Function Reference
— Loadable Function: strftime (fmt, tm_struct)

Format the time structure tm_struct in a flexible way using the format string fmt that contains ‘%’ substitutions similar to those in printf. Except where noted, substituted fields have a fixed size; numeric fields are padded if necessary. Padding is with zeros by default; for fields that display a single number, padding can be changed or inhibited by following the ‘%’ with one of the modifiers described below. Unknown field specifiers are copied as normal characters. All other characters are copied to the output without change. For example,

          strftime ("%r (%Z) %A %e %B %Y", localtime (time ()))
               "01:15:06 AM (CST) Monday 17 February 1997"

Octave's strftime function supports a superset of the ANSI C field specifiers.

Literal character fields:

%
% character.
n
Newline character.
t
Tab character.

Numeric modifiers (a nonstandard extension):

- (dash)
Do not pad the field.
_ (underscore)
Pad the field with spaces.

Time fields:

%H
Hour (00-23).
%I
Hour (01-12).
%k
Hour (0-23).
%l
Hour (1-12).
%M
Minute (00-59).
%p
Locale's AM or PM.
%r
Time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss [AP]M).
%R
Time, 24-hour (hh:mm).
%s
Time in seconds since 00:00:00, Jan 1, 1970 (a nonstandard extension).
%S
Second (00-61).
%T
Time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss).
%X
Locale's time representation (%H:%M:%S).
%Z
Time zone (EDT), or nothing if no time zone is determinable.

Date fields:

%a
Locale's abbreviated weekday name (Sun-Sat).
%A
Locale's full weekday name, variable length (Sunday-Saturday).
%b
Locale's abbreviated month name (Jan-Dec).
%B
Locale's full month name, variable length (January-December).
%c
Locale's date and time (Sat Nov 04 12:02:33 EST 1989).
%C
Century (00-99).
%d
Day of month (01-31).
%e
Day of month ( 1-31).
%D
Date (mm/dd/yy).
%h
Same as %b.
%j
Day of year (001-366).
%m
Month (01-12).
%U
Week number of year with Sunday as first day of week (00-53).
%w
Day of week (0-6).
%W
Week number of year with Monday as first day of week (00-53).
%x
Locale's date representation (mm/dd/yy).
%y
Last two digits of year (00-99).
%Y
Year (1970-).