edtfy is a javascript tool that attempts to parse a user input and transforms it into the Extended Date/Time Format format.

The following forms of dates are currently supported: date, interval, uncertain/approximate, season, one of a set, multiple dates.

View code on github

Usage

Install:


      npm install edtfy     # npm
      bowser install edtfy  # bower

And use:


      const edtfy = require('edtfy');
      edtfy.locale('en');
      edtfy('around march 1988'); // 1988-03~

Features

Date

A basic date can be either defined by a year, a month and a year, or a day, a month, and a year.
Recognized formats for days: D, DD, Do.
Recognized formats for months: M, MM, MMM, MMMM.
Recognized format for year: YYYY.

2003

2003-03

2003-01-30

1984-02-10

Interval

An interval is a period of time represented by a start date and an end date.
Start and end dates are dates can be either a date or any date format described above, uncertain/approximate, unspecified, season, or various.

2003-07/2005-03

2005-10-03/2005-10-04

2003/2005

2003~/2004-04

1988/unknown

Uncertain and approximate

The parser will look for terms as around or about that indicates the dates is approximate, or a ? sign, for an uncertain date. A date can be both uncertain and approximate.

1984?

2004-06?

2003-03-03~

2003?~

Unspecified

The characters u and * indicate that the value of the digit is unknown.

199u

19uu-04

1999-uu

1999-01-uu

1999-uu-uu

19uu-1u-10

Season

The parser finds seasons, if they are used in combination with a year.

2016-21

1973-23

One of a set

The parser finds sets of dates, when these ones are separated by the or keyword. A set member can be as specified in date, uncertain/approximate, unspecified, season, or various.

[1967,1968,1969]

[2003-12-04,2003-12-05]

[..,2003-03]

Multiple dates

The same way as sets, the parser finds multiple dates, when these ones are separated by the and keyword. These dates can be as specified in date, uncertain/approximate, unspecified, season, or various.

{1967,1968,1969}

{2003-04-04,2003-04-05}

Various

The parser handles centuries, as well as 5digits long numbers.

18xx

02xx

y21000

y-12000