How to insert current date time in vscode?

Question

Does anyone know of a way that I can insert the current date & time in a visual studio code by snippets?

I have looked docs but did not get any information about it.

I want to create a snippets like this：

title: theFileTitle
date: 2016-08-05 09:44:16

the question is vague, please explain in more detail – Ulises Aug 05 '16 at 02:27 — Ulises, Aug 05 '16 at 02:27

score 85 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 23 '22 at 19:08

85

As of Jan 2018 (release 1.20) you can use these new snippet environment variables.

Your example above would look like this:

"File Header": {
    "prefix": "header",
    "description": "Output a file header with the file name and date",
    "body": [
        "title: $TM_FILENAME",
        "date: $CURRENT_YEAR-$CURRENT_MONTH-$CURRENT_DATE $CURRENT_HOUR:$CURRENT_MINUTE:$CURRENT_SECOND",
    ]
}

Type head, press ctrl+space and it should show snippet menu.

edited Nov 23 '22 at 19:08

ccpizza

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answered Apr 18 '18 at 02:14

LukeBatchelor

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FYI if you don't see the time it is because you have to remove the new line between the date and time formatting. – h3dkandi Feb 27 '19 at 12:00
@Robert This is not necessarily better than the accepted solution. While a "native" solution is preferred when available, it lacks some functionality -- for example, I needed the three-letter day name, which is not possible using this method. – Jan Pokorný Sep 17 '21 at 08:27
Neither was it the OPs question, right? Referring to the actual question, I prefer this answer over the accepted one. Still the accepted one is absolutely right and apparently still convinced the majority of readers. I'm happy seeing both ways here - wonderful free world ;) – Robert Oct 07 '21 at 13:09

score 74 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 23 '18 at 08:36

I have created an extension for you that allows to insert formatted date and/or time string - Insert Date String.

Installation

Open Command Palette by pressing F1, type ext install + press Enter and then look for Insert Date String extension.

Usage

To insert current date and/or time at the cursor position you can:

Press ⇧+⌘+I (OS X) or Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows and Linux), or open Command Palette by pressing F1 and type Insert DateTime then press Enter.

Configuration

By default you don't have to set anything. But if you want to change the datetime format, look for insertDateString.format option in user settings.

// Date format to be used.
"insertDateString.format": "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss",

You can specify any valid ISO 8601 format. There are some examples in readme.

Snippet

Unfortunately you can't use anything more than tab stops or variables in snippets so you'll have to enter the title and date/time manually.

You can define snippets for specific languages. To open a snippet file for editing, open User Snippets under File > Preferences (Code > Preferences on Mac OS X) and select the language for which the snippets should appear.

Following example is for Plain Text files.

After opening a snippet file for Plain Text, add following definition:

{
     "File header": {
        "prefix": "header",
        "body": [
            "title: ${title:Enter title}",
            "date: ${date:Insert datetime string (⇧⌘I or Ctrl+Shift+I)}"
        ]
    }
}

Now you can open a new plaintext file, enter header and press Tab. Enter your title and use Insert DateTime command to insert current date and/or time.

Idea for a more customizable solution

One could write an extension for inserting such headers. This way some sort of templates with several predefined variables (e.g. date, filename, configurable username/email, etc.) might be used.

Hope this helps!!

Sadly, CTRL + SHIFT + I conflicts with VSCode code formatting. — Frederik Krautwald, Oct 02 '17 at 18:12
@FrederikKrautwald you can always remap it or use through command palette. `⌃+⇧+I` was not present on the Windows keybindings list when I published it. — Jakub Synowiec, Oct 20 '17 at 05:33
Related info: The extension vscode-fileheader inserts author name, creation date, modification date etc. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mikey.vscode-fileheader — vineeshvs, May 03 '20 at 07:03
It seems that this extension could be deprecated due to built-in [snippet variables](https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_20#_more-snippet-variables) functionality mentioned by other people here. — pjboro, Jun 26 '22 at 10:30

score 58 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 26 '19 at 09:06

58

if you don't want create a snippet, there is a simple way, using keybindings.

open keybindings.json (Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)), and add fellow code to your keybindings.json

[
    {
        "key": "cmd+k t",
        "command": "editor.action.insertSnippet",
        "when": "editorTextFocus",
        "args": {
            "snippet": "$CURRENT_YEAR-$CURRENT_MONTH-$CURRENT_DATE $CURRENT_HOUR:$CURRENT_MINUTE:$CURRENT_SECOND"
        }
    }
]

that's all.

now you can use cmd+k t to insert current data time while typing.

answered Aug 26 '19 at 09:06

jianyongli

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Aaargh.. Remember to replace `cmd` with `ctrl` on Windows. – Krishna Apr 09 '20 at 07:56
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Other variable options found at: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/userdefinedsnippets#_variables – jxramos Aug 12 '20 at 18:40

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 24 '21 at 07:41

You can just use the following variables in your snippets:

$CURRENT_YEAR
$CURRENT_YEAR_SHORT
$CURRENT_MONTH
$CURRENT_DATE
$CURRENT_HOUR
$CURRENT_MINUTE
$CURRENT_SECOND

Links to the official VSCode docs:
date and time in snippets
user defined snippets

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 25 '18 at 16:03

3

The env variable TM_FILENAME will fill the title with the file name automatically.

For example:

"title: ${1:$TM_FILENAME_BASE}"

edited Oct 25 '18 at 16:03

James Skemp

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answered Oct 19 '17 at 07:17

liangxinhui

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 09 '17 at 15:40

1

You could also use a tool outside of Code, like for example Texter. I have configured it to replace [t with [%ds %t], which gives me [9/11/2017 16:30] while I type, regardless of application.

answered Nov 09 '17 at 15:40

Bert Van Landeghem

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Mark · Answer 7 · 2022-10-17T01:33:12.723

See https://stackoverflow.com/a/74082031/836330 for how to insert the Intl.DateTimeFormat timeStamp with options with a keybinding:

Or see Command Variable extension. It uses the Intl.DateTimeFormat format and can be used in a keybinding like so:

 {
    "key": "alt+d",
    "when": "editorTextFocus",
    "command": "extension.commandvariable.dateTimeInEditor",

    "args": {
      "locale": "en-US",
      "options": {
        "year": "numeric",
        "month": "long",
        "weekday": "long",
        "day": "2-digit",
        "hour12": false,
        "hour": "2-digit",
        "minute": "2-digit",
        "second": "2-digit"
      },
      "template": "${month} ${day}, (${weekday}), ${year} - ${hour}:${minute}::${second}"
    }
  },

to produce

March 25, (Wednesday), 2020 - 21:16::49

and many other timestamp versions. See the possibilities at Intl.DateTimeFormat

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 08 '20 at 08:20

0

It might be a bit of an overkill but you can check Org Mode extension which has this functionality and more:

answered Nov 08 '20 at 08:20

vdi

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 03 '22 at 05:51

0

You can use this snippet for Vscode, I used to refer to this in my code files.


"file description": {
  "prefix": "template",
  "body": [
    "\"\"\"",
    "# _* coding: utf8 *_",
    "",
    "filename: $TM_FILENAME",
    "",
    "@author: sounishnath",
    "createdAt: $CURRENT_YEAR-$CURRENT_MONTH-$CURRENT_DATE $CURRENT_HOUR:$CURRENT_MINUTE:$CURRENT_SECOND",
    "\"\"\"",
    "",
    ""
  ],
  "description": "file description"
}

answered Apr 03 '22 at 05:51

sounish nath

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you can set up as a global snippet in vs code. and just type `template` - as a prefix for generating the snippet. – sounish nath Apr 03 '22 at 05:52

How to insert current date time in vscode?

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