HTML: time

By Xah Lee. Date: 2011-07-03. Last updated: 2021-08-09.

The time tag is used to represent date, time, date+time, duration.

Example:

<p>Captain's log, <time>2011-07-03</time>.</p>

<p>Captain's log, <time>2011-07-03 12:51:02-07:00</time>.</p>

<p>I had lunch at <time>13:58</time>.</p>

Here is another example, with the optional datetime attribute:

<p>I need this <time datetime="2011-07-03 12:28:57-07:00">now</time>!</p>

The datetime attribute is optional. But if not present, then the time tag's content must use the same fomat used by datetime attribute.

“datetime” Attribute

datetime attribute's value is a machine-readable date/time format.

Examples:

<!-- date only -->
mom's birthday <time datetime="2011-07-03">July 3rd</time>

<!-- date and time -->
meeting at <time datetime="2011-07-03 13:00">1 pm</time>

<!-- full date time -->
conference <time datetime="2011-07-03 12:46:03-07:00">12:46:03 PST</time>

“datetime” Attribute Formats

Examples of valid datetime formats:

13:58 → (must be 24hours format)
13:58:46 →
3h 16m 19s → duration
07-03 → month+date.
2011 → year.
2011-07 → year+month.
2011-07-03 → year+month+date
2011-07-03 13:58
2011-07-03 13:58:46
2011-07-03 13:58-07:00 → with UTC offset, but no seconds.
2011-07-03 13:58:46-07:00 → with UTC offset, and with seconds.

The space between {date, time} can also be T. e.g. 2011-07-03T13:58

The above are the most commonly needed format. The spec also allow {fraction of second, time zone only, year+week, duration}.

Incorrect Use of Time Tag

<!-- incorrect use of time tag -->

<time>today</time>
<!-- incorrect format -->

<time>July 3</time>
<!-- incorrect format -->

<time>07/03/11</time>
<!-- incorrect format -->

<time>Sun Jul 03 13:20:16 2011</time>
<!-- incorrect format -->

2014-03-21 thanks to Manuel Strehl https://x.com/m_strehl for correction.

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