🕘 DATR

Dates should be sortable and human-readable at the same time. Unix timestamps are sortable but unreadable. Most date strings are readable but not sortable. YYYYMMDDHHMMSSms is both - common among developers, yet never formally standardized.

Useful for console logging, generating IDs, naming files, and more.

Module Installation

NPM

npm i datr

PNPM

pnpm add datr

BUN

bun i datr

DENO

deno add npm:datr

Module Usage

import datr from 'datr';

console.log(typeof datr());
// string

console.log(datr());
// 20260508

console.log(datr({ precision: 'seconds' }));
// 20260508104700

console.log(datr({ precision: 'ms', separator: '-' }));
// 20260508-104700-001

console.log(datr({ date: '2024-06-15', precision: 'seconds' }));
// 20240615000000

Options

The datr function accepts an optional options object:

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | precision | 'day' \| 'seconds' \| 'ms' | 'day' | Smallest unit in the output. | | separator | string | '' | String inserted between blocks. | | date | Date \| string \| number | new Date() | Date to format (Date object, ISO string, or timestamp). |

CLI installation

NPM

npm i -g datr

PNPM

pnpm add -g datr

BUN

bun i -g datr

DENO

deno i -g datr

CLI usage

datr
# 20260508

datr --precision seconds
# 20260508104700

datr --precision ms --separator -
# 20260508-104700-001

datr --date 2024-06-15 --precision seconds
# 20240615000000

datr --version
# 4.0.0

datr --help
# Usage: datr [options] ...

All options also support short flags: -p, -s, -d, -v, and -h.

datr -d "$(date)" -p ms -s -
# 20260508-104700-222

CLI usage without installation

NPM

npx datr

PNPM

pnpm dlx datr

BUN

bunx datr

DENO

deno run npm:datr

Migrating from v3

The API has changed from positional arguments to a single options object.

| v3 (Positional) | v4 (Object) | |---|---| | datr() | datr() | | datr(1) | datr({ precision: 'seconds' }) | | datr(2) | datr({ precision: 'ms' }) | | datr(2, '-') | datr({ precision: 'ms', separator: '-' }) |