Parse dates

time has can parse datetimes from strings, in any given format.

Parse a date from a string

1. Enable feature parsing.

2. Using the common ISO 8601 format, via the Iso8601 format description:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use time::format_description::well_known::Iso8601;
use time::PrimitiveDateTime;

let date = PrimitiveDateTime::parse("2022-01-02T11:12:13", &Iso8601::DEFAULT)
    .unwrap();
}

Parsing custom formats

time supports a few common formats, that we call well-known formats. We support arbitrary formats as well.

1. Enable feature macros and parsing. macros are used to call format_description!, but you can also call the equivalent function.

2. Create a format and parse:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use time::macros::format_description;
use time::Time;

let my_format = format_description!("h=[hour],m=[minute],s=[second]");
let time = Time::parse("h=11,m=12,s=13", &my_format).unwrap();
}

Reference for format descriptions can be found here.

Parsing into structs with serde

For convenience, you can use Serde with time.

1. Enable [feature serde-well-known][serde-well-known].

2. Create a struct and parse from a format, eg. JSON using serde-json:

use time::macros::format_description;
use time::{OffsetDateTime, Time};
use serde::{Deserialize};

#[derive(Deserialize)]
struct Notification {
    message: String,
    #[serde(with = "time::serde::iso8601")]
    timestamp: OffsetDateTime,
}

fn main() {
    let input = r#"{
      "message": "foo",
      "timestamp": "2022-01-02T11:12:13Z"
    }"#;

    let notification: Notification = serde_json::from_str(input).unwrap();
    println!("{:?}", notification.timestamp);
}