4.35.2.1 Time and date data structures

We use the following time representations

TimeStamp

A TimeStamp is a floating point number expressing the time in seconds since the Epoch at 1970-01-01.

date(Y,M,D,H,Mn,S,Off,TZ,DST)

We call this term a date-time structure. The first 5 fields are integers expressing the year, month (1..12), day (1..31), hour (0..23) and minute (0..59). The S field holds the seconds as a floating point number between 0.0 and 60.0. Off is an integer representing the offset relative to UTC in seconds, where positive values are west of Greenwich. If converted from local time (see stamp_date_time/3), TZ holds the name of the local timezone. If the timezone is not known, TZ is the atom -. DST is true if daylight saving time applies to the current time, false if daylight saving time is relevant but not effective, and - if unknown or the timezone has no daylight saving time.

date(Y,M,D)

Date using the same values as described above. Extracted using date_time_value/3.

time(H,Mn,S)

Time using the same values as described above. Extracted using date_time_value/3.