Browse All Articles > Gregorian Calendar for Windows Command Prompt
If like me you are one who spends a lot of time working and scripting with cmd.exe, sometimes it is handy to be able to quickly view a calendar for a given month and year. This script will quickly do just that! Save the code posted below to a .bat file called gcal.bat. Then you will be able to view the current calendar (default) or specify a month and year, all with a simple command:
gcal [month] [YYYY]
Examples:
gcal July
gcal August 2012
gcal 09 2012
gcal 10/2012
gcal nov . dec . jan 2013
Notes: This is a pure script solution - no additional third party tools or scripts are required. (EDIT: I now use the wmic program that comes with the OS to get the default month and year in a regionally non-dependant manner, but I left the "pure script" version in for reference, and for use with older OS versions. See the formatParams section.)
The script is divided into four sections. The first section (formatParams) validates and formats the input parameters (if any). For flexibility the script will take various month formats. The years is always a number from 1-9999.
The second section (getDayList) simply builds a string of numbers to represent the days in the specified month, 1 - 28, 29, 30, or 31 as required.
The third section (getSTARTDOW) actually does the work - determining which day of the week is the first of the month specified.
The fourth section (displayCalendar) displays the calendar by pulling sub-strings from the data build in section 2 - one for each week of the month.
Finally, it should be noted that the Gregorian calendar was first adapted in 1582, and gained widespread acceptance in 1752. Therefore, renderings of the Gregorian calendar prior to these dates are just projections.
Edit 2016-02-01 - added a feature to surround the current day in brackets when the current month is rendered. Also some minor bug fixes.
Now the script!
gcal.bat
gcal [month] [YYYY]
Examples:
gcal July
gcal August 2012
gcal 09 2012
gcal 10/2012
gcal nov . dec . jan 2013
Notes: This is a pure script solution - no additional third party tools or scripts are required. (EDIT: I now use the wmic program that comes with the OS to get the default month and year in a regionally non-dependant manner, but I left the "pure script" version in for reference, and for use with older OS versions. See the formatParams section.)
The script is divided into four sections. The first section (formatParams) validates and formats the input parameters (if any). For flexibility the script will take various month formats. The years is always a number from 1-9999.
The second section (getDayList) simply builds a string of numbers to represent the days in the specified month, 1 - 28, 29, 30, or 31 as required.
The third section (getSTARTDOW) actually does the work - determining which day of the week is the first of the month specified.
The fourth section (displayCalendar) displays the calendar by pulling sub-strings from the data build in section 2 - one for each week of the month.
Finally, it should be noted that the Gregorian calendar was first adapted in 1582, and gained widespread acceptance in 1752. Therefore, renderings of the Gregorian calendar prior to these dates are just projections.
Edit 2016-02-01 - added a feature to surround the current day in brackets when the current month is rendered. Also some minor bug fixes.
Now the script!
gcal.bat
@echo off
setlocal DISableDelayedExpansion
:REM gcal.bat - Gregorian Calendar
:REM written by: Ralph L. Brown
:REM syntax: gcal.bat [month] [YYYY] ...
:START
@echo.
set params=%~1/%~2
set params=%params:/= %
set params=%params:-= %
call :formatParams %params% || exit/b 1
call :getDayList
call :getSTARTDOW
call :displayCalendar
set _p1=%~1
if "%_p1%" == "%_p1:/=%" shift /1
shift /1
if not "%1"=="" goto :START
exit/b 0
:END MAIN
:formatParams - This section validates the month and year parameters (if supplied).
set currentDate=%date:~10,4%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%
set/a currentDate+=0 2>nul
REM - if the above fails, then get these fields using a regionally independent method:
if NOT "%currentDate%"=="%date:~10,4%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%" for /f "delims= " %%C in ('wmic path Win32_LocalTime Get Day^,Month^,Year /Format:List 2^>nul ^| find "="') do @(set current%%C) 2>nul
REM - but this way is generally faster...
if not defined currentYear set/a currentYear=%currentDate:~0,4%
if not defined currentMonth set/a currentMonth=%currentDate:~0,6% %% %currentDate:~0,4%00
if not defined currentDay set/a currentDay=%currentDate% %% %currentDate:~0,6%00
call :decode "%currentMonth%" "1:JAN,JAN:JAN,2:FEB,FEB:FEB,3:MAR,MAR:MAR,4:APR,APR:APR,5:MAY,MAY:MAY,6:JUN,JUN:JUN,7:JUL,JUL:JUL,8:AUG,AUG,08:AUG,AUG:AUG,9:SEP,SEP,09:SEP,SEP:SEP,10:OCT,OCT:OCT,11:NOV,NOV:NOV,12:DEC,DEC:DEC"
set currentMonth=%decode%
set/a calMonth=%~1 2>nul || set calMonth=%~1
if 0%calMonth% equ 0 set calMonth=%~1
if "%calMonth%"=="" set calMonth=%currentMonth%
if "%calMonth%"=="." set calMonth=%currentMonth%
call :decode "%calMonth:~0,3%" "1:JAN,JAN:JAN,2:FEB,FEB:FEB,3:MAR,MAR:MAR,4:APR,APR:APR,5:MAY,MAY:MAY,6:JUN,JUN:JUN,7:JUL,JUL:JUL,8:AUG,AUG,08:AUG,AUG:AUG,9:SEP,SEP,09:SEP,SEP:SEP,10:OCT,OCT:OCT,11:NOV,NOV:NOV,12:DEC,DEC:DEC"
set calMonth=%decode%
if not defined calMonth call :syntax Invalid month specified: "%~1"\n Valid range is 1-12, or month name (or abbreviation), or . for current month. || exit/b 1
set calYear=%~2
if "%calYear%"=="." set calYear=
if defined calYear set calYear=%calYear:X=#%
if defined calYear set/a calYear=%calYear% 2>nul
if defined calYear if NOT "%calYear%"=="%~2" set calYear=INVALID
for %%Y in (00,01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09) do if "%~2"=="%%Y" set calYear=%currentYear:~0,2%%%Y
if NOT defined calYear set calYear=%currentYear%
REM - Comment-out the next 2 lines if you want to render years 1 A.D. - 99 A.D.
if %calYear% LSS 10 set calYear=%currentYear:~0,2%0%calYear%
if %calYear% LSS 100 set calYear=%currentYear:~0,2%%calYear%
if %calYear% LSS 10000 if %calYear% GEQ 0 exit/b 0
call :syntax Invalid year specified: "%~2"\n Valid range is 100 - 9999, or . for current year.
exit/b 1
:END-formatParams
:getDayList - This section creates the string of days for the specified month.
set/a leapYear= !(%calYear% %% 4) - !(%calYear% %% 100) + !(%calYear% %% 400) 2>nul
set dayList=++++++1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
if "%calMonth%"=="FEB" if %leapYear% equ 1 set dayList=%dayList% 29
if not "%calMonth%"=="FEB" set dayList=%dayList% 29 30
for %%M in (JAN,MAR,MAY,JUL,AUG,OCT,DEC) do if "%calMonth%"=="%%M" set dayList=%dayList% 31
set dayList=%dayList:+= %
if %currentYear% equ %calYear% if "%currentMonth%"=="%calMonth%" call set dayList=%%dayList: %currentDay% =[%currentDay%]%%
exit/b %errorlevel%
:END-getDayList
:getSTARTDOW - This section determines which day of the week falls on the 1st of the month (0 - 6 for Sun - Sat).
set/a workYear=%calYear% %% 400 2>nul
set/a DOWJAN1= ( ( ( %workYear% %% 28 ) + ( ( (%workYear%+3) %% 28) / 4 ) ) + (( 6 * ( 1 + ((%workYear%-1) / 100)) ) ) ) %% 7
for %%M in (JAN,FEB) do if "%calMonth%"=="%%M" set leapYear=0
call :decode "%calMonth%" "JAN:0,FEB:3,MAR:3,APR:6,MAY:1,JUN:4,JUL:6,AUG:2,SEP:5,OCT:0,NOV:3,DEC:5"
set/a STARTDOW= ( %DOWJAN1% + %decode% + %leapYear% ) %% 7
exit/b %errorlevel%
:END-getSTARTDOW
:displayCalendar - This section displays the calendar.
set calYear= %calYear%||:This is to format the year for display.
@echo. %calMonth% %calYear:~-4%
@echo. Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
@echo.
for /L %%W in (1,1,6) do call :writeWeek %%W
if %calYear% GTR 1752 exit/b %errorlevel%
@echo. NOTE: The Gregorian calendar was first adapted in 1582, but
@echo. only gained widespread acceptance in 1752. The calendar
@echo. above is a projection of how the Gregorian calendar would
@echo. have rendered had it been in use prior to September of 1752.
exit/b %errorlevel%
:END-displayCalendar
:writeWeek - This section extracts the specified week from the dayList string.
set/a _idx=%1*28-4*%STARTDOW%
call set week=%%dayList:~%_idx%,28%%
@echo.%week%
exit/b 0
:END-writeWeek
:decode - This function extracts the matching key value from the supplied map.
set key=%~1
set csvmap=,%~2
set ret=%~3
if "%ret%"=="" set ret=decode
call set key=%%csvmap:*,%key%:=%%
set %ret%=%key:,=&:%||exit/b 1
exit/b 0
:END-decode
:syntax
set msg=%*
@echo. %msg:\n=&@echo.%
@echo.
@echo. Syntax: %~nx0 [month] [YYYY] ...
@echo. Example: %~nx0 July
@echo. Example: %~nx0 August %currentYear%
@echo. Example: %~nx0 09 %currentYear%
@echo. Example: %~nx0 10/%currentYear%
set/a currentYear+=1
@echo. Example: %~nx0 nov . dec . jan %currentYear%
exit/b 1
:END-syntaxHave a question about something in this article? You can receive help directly from the article author. Sign up for a free trial to get started.
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