I'm trying to create a Time struct based on some input called dateAdded. My code is like this:
dateAdded := "November 25, 2016"
layout := "September 9, 2016"
t, err := time.Parse(layout, dateAdded)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
} else {
fmt.Println(t)
}
And I get the following error: parsing time "November 25, 2016" as "September 9, 2016": cannot parse "November 25, 2016" as "September 9, "
I assume the Parse function cannot parse every layout, but I'm curios what's the usual way of reading dates and parse them into time objects.
Your layout date is wrong. Should be "January 2, 2006". As the specs say:
The layout defines the format by showing how the reference time, defined to be
Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 -0700 MST 2006would be interpreted if it were the value
The layout, if you're not using one of the pre-included constant layout that comes with the time module, must be formed from the exact timestamp Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 -0700 MST 2006. Notice that each element of it is unique, so each numeric identifier can be automatically parsed. it's basically 1 (month), 2 (day), 3 (hour), 4 (minute), 5 (second), 6 (year), 7 (time zone) etc.
It's better to use one of the pre-defined standard layouts that are included with the library:
const (
ANSIC = "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006"
UnixDate = "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006"
RubyDate = "Mon Jan 02 15:04:05 -0700 2006"
RFC822 = "02 Jan 06 15:04 MST"
RFC822Z = "02 Jan 06 15:04 -0700" // RFC822 with numeric zone
RFC850 = "Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST"
RFC1123 = "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST"
RFC1123Z = "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700" // RFC1123 with numeric zone
RFC3339 = "2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00"
RFC3339Nano = "2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00"
Kitchen = "3:04PM"
// Handy time stamps.
Stamp = "Jan _2 15:04:05"
StampMilli = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000"
StampMicro = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000000"
StampNano = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000000000"
)
You should treat it as an example which you provide to time.Provide. And it should be of concrete value described in the documentation.
Parse parses a formatted string and returns the time value it represents. The layout defines the format by showing how the reference time, defined to be
Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 -0700 MST 2006