Setting a windows batch file variable to the day of the week

Solution 1:

%DATE% is not your friend. Because the %DATE% environment variable (and the DATE command) returns the current date using the Windows short date format that is fully and endlessly customizable. One user may configure the system to return 07/06/2012 while another might choose Fri060712. Using %DATE% is a complete nightmare for a BAT programmer.

There are two possible approaches to solve this problem:

1. You may be tempted to temporarily change the short date format, by changing the locale settings in the registry value HKCU\Control Panel\International\sShortDate, to your recognizable format. Then access %DATE% to get the date in the format you want; and finally restore the format back to the original user format. Something like this

   reg copy "HKCU\Control Panel\International" "HKCU\Control Panel\International-Temp" /f >nul
   reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\International" /v sShortDate /d "ddd" /f >nul
   set DOW=%DATE%
   reg copy "HKCU\Control Panel\International-Temp" "HKCU\Control Panel\International" /f >nul
   

   but this method has two problems:

   • it tampers with a global registry value for its local particular purpouses, so it may interfere with other processes or user tasks that at the very same time query the date in short date format, including itself if run simultaneously.

   • and it returns the three letter day of the week in the local language that may be different in different systems or different users.

2. use WMIC Win32_LocalTime, that returns the date in a convenient way to directly parse it with a FOR command.

   FOR /F "skip=1" %%A IN ('WMIC Path Win32_LocalTime Get DayOfWeek' ) DO (
     set DOW=%%A
   )
   

   this is the method I recommend.

Solution 2:

few more ways:

1.Robocopy not available in XP but can be downloaded form with win 2003 resource tool kit .Also might depend on localization:

@echo off
setlocal 
for /f "skip=8 tokens=2,3,4,5,6,7,8 delims=: " %%D in ('robocopy /l * \ \ /ns /nc /ndl /nfl /np /njh /XF * /XD *') do (
 set "dow=%%D"
 set "month=%%E"
 set "day=%%F"
 set "HH=%%G"
 set "MM=%%H"
 set "SS=%%I"
 set "year=%%J"
)

echo Day of the week: %dow%
endlocal

2.MAKECAB - works on every windows machine (but creates a small temp file).Function provided by carlos:

@Echo Off


Call :GetDate.Init
Rem :GetDate.Init should be called one time in the code before call to :Getdate
Call :GetDate
Echo weekday:%weekday%

Goto :EOF

:GetDate.Init
Set /A "jan=1,feb=2,mar=3,apr=4,may=5,jun=6,jul=7,aug=8,sep=9,oct=10,nov=11,dec=12"
Set /A "mon=1,tue=2,wed=3,thu=4,fri=5,sat=6,sun=7"
(
Echo .Set InfHeader=""
Echo .Set InfSectionOrder=""
Echo .Set InfFooter="%%2"
Echo .Set InfFooter1=""
Echo .Set InfFooter2=""
Echo .Set InfFooter3=""
Echo .Set InfFooter4=""
Echo .Set Cabinet="OFF"
Echo .Set Compress="OFF"
Echo .Set DoNotCopyFiles="ON"
Echo .Set RptFileName="NUL"
) >"%Temp%\~foo.ddf"
Goto :Eof

:GetDate
Set "tf=%Temp%\~%random%"
Makecab /D InfFileName="%tf%" /F "%Temp%\~foo.ddf" >NUL
For /F "usebackq tokens=1-7 delims=: " %%a In ("%tf%") Do (
Set /A "year=%%g,month=%%b,day=1%%c-100,weekday=%%a"
Set /A "hour=1%%d-100,minute=1%%e-100,second=1%%f-100")
Del "%tf%" >NUL 2>&1
Goto :Eof

3.W32TM - uses command switches introduced in Vista so will not work on windows 2003/XP:

@echo off
setlocal
call :w32dow day_ow
echo %day_ow%
pause
exit /b 0
endlocal
:w32dow [RrnVar]
setlocal

rem :: prints the day of the week
rem :: works on Vista and above


rem :: getting ansi date ( days passed from 1st jan 1601 ) , timer server hour and current hour
FOR /F "tokens=4,5 delims=:( " %%D in ('w32tm /stripchart /computer:localhost  /samples:1  /period:1 /dataonly /packetinfo^|find "Transmit Timestamp:" ') do (
 set "ANSI_DATE=%%D"
 set  "TIMESERVER_HOURS=%%E"
)

set  "LOCAL_HOURS=%TIME:~0,2%"
if "%TIMESERVER_HOURS:~0,1%0" EQU "00" set TIMESERVER_HOURS=%TIMESERVER_HOURS:~1,1%
if "%LOCAL_HOURS:~0,1%0" EQU "00" set LOCAL_HOURS=%LOCAL_HOURS:~1,1%
set /a OFFSET=TIMESERVER_HOURS-LOCAL_HOURS

rem :: day of the week will be the modulus of 7 of local ansi date +1
rem :: we need need +1 because Monday will be calculated as 0
rem ::  1st jan 1601 was Monday

rem :: if abs(offset)>12 we are in different days with the time server

IF %OFFSET%0 GTR 120 set /a DOW=(ANSI_DATE+1)%%7+1
IF %OFFSET%0 LSS -120 set /a DOW=(ANSI_DATE-1)%%7+1
IF %OFFSET%0 LEQ 120 IF %OFFSET%0 GEQ -120 set /a DOW=ANSI_DATE%%7+1


rem echo Day of the week: %DOW% 
endlocal & if "%~1" neq "" (set "%~1=%DOW%") else echo %DOW%

4..bat/jscript hybrid (must be saved as .bat):

 @if (@x)==(@y) @end /***** jscript comment ******
 @echo off
 for /f  %%d in ('cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0"') do echo %%d
 exit /b 0
 *****  end comment *********/
 WScript.Echo((new Date).getDay());

5..bat/vbscript hybrid (must be saved as .bat)

 :sub echo(str) :end sub
echo off
'>nul 2>&1|| copy /Y %windir%\System32\doskey.exe '.exe >nul

'& echo/ 
'& for /f %%w in ('cscript /nologo /E:vbscript %~dpfn0') do echo day of the week %%w
'& echo/
'& del /q "'.exe" >nul 2>&1
'& exit /b

WScript.Echo Weekday(Date)
WScript.Quit

6.powershell can be downloaded from microsoft.Available by default in everything form win7 and above:

@echo off
setlocal
for /f %%d in ('"powershell (Get-Date).DayOfWeek.Value__"') do set dow=%%d

echo day of the week : %dow%
endlocal

7.WMIC already used as an answer but just want to have a full reference.And with cleared <CR>:

@echo off
setlocal
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('wmic path win32_localtime get dayofweek /format:list ') do for /f "delims=" %%d in ("%%a") do set %%d

echo day of the week : %dayofweek%
endlocal

9.Selfcompiled jscript.net (must be saved as .bat):

@if (@X)==(@Y) @end /****** silent line that start jscript comment ******

@echo off
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::       compile the script    ::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
setlocal
if exist "%~n0.exe" goto :skip_compilation

set "frm=%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\"
:: searching the latest installed .net framework
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%v in ('dir /b /s /a:d /o:-n "%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v*"') do (
    if exist "%%v\jsc.exe" (
        rem :: the javascript.net compiler
        set "jsc=%%~dpsnfxv\jsc.exe"
        goto :break_loop
    )
)
echo jsc.exe not found && exit /b 0
:break_loop


call %jsc% /nologo /out:"%~n0.exe" "%~dpsfnx0"
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::       end of compilation    ::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:skip_compilation

"%~n0.exe"

exit /b 0


****** end of jscript comment ******/
import System;
import System.IO;

var dt=DateTime.Now;
 Console.WriteLine(dt.DayOfWeek);

Solution 3:

@ECHO OFF
REM GET DAY OF WEEK VIA DATE TO JULIAN DAY NUMBER CONVERSION
REM ANTONIO PEREZ AYALA
REM GET MONTH, DAY, YEAR VALUES AND ELIMINATE LEFT ZEROS
FOR /F "TOKENS=1-3 DELIMS=/" %%A IN ("%DATE%") DO SET /A MM=10%%A %% 100, DD=10%%B %% 100, YY=%%C
REM CALCULATE JULIAN DAY NUMBER, THEN DAY OF WEEK
IF %MM% LSS 3 SET /A MM+=12, YY-=1
SET /A A=YY/100, B=A/4, C=2-A+B, E=36525*(YY+4716)/100, F=306*(MM+1)/10, JDN=C+DD+E+F-1524
SET /A DOW=(JDN+1)%%7

DOW is 0 for Sunday, 1 for Monday, etc.

Solution 4:

I thought that my first answer gives the correct day of week as a number between 0 and 6. However, because you had not indicated why this answer does not give the result you want, I can only guess the reason.

The Batch file below create a log file each day with a digit in the name, 0=Sunday, 1=Monday, etc... The program assume that echo %date% show the date in MM/DD/YYYY format; if this is not the case, just change the position of mm and dd variables in the for command.

@echo off
for /F "tokens=1-3 delims=/" %%a in ("%date%") do set /A mm=10%%a %% 100, dd=10%%b %% 100, yy=%%c
if %mm% lss 3 set /A mm+=12, yy-=1
set /A a=yy/100, b=a/4, c=2-a+b, e=36525*(yy+4716)/100, f=306*(mm+1)/10, dow=(c+dd+e+f-1523)%%7
echo Today log data > Day-%dow%.txt

If this is not what you want, please indicate the problem so I can fix it.

EDIT: The version below get date parts independent of locale settings:

@echo off
for /F "skip=1 tokens=2-4 delims=(-/)" %%A in ('date ^< NUL') do (
   for /F "tokens=1-3 delims=/" %%a in ("%date%") do (
      set %%A=%%a
      set %%B=%%b
      set %%C=%%c
   )
)
set /A mm=10%mm% %% 100, dd=10%dd% %% 100
if %mm% lss 3 set /A mm+=12, yy-=1
set /A a=yy/100, b=a/4, c=2-a+b, e=36525*(yy+4716)/100, f=306*(mm+1)/10, 

dow=(c+dd+e+f-1523)%%7
echo Today log data > Day-%dow%.txt

EDIT: The version below insert day of week as 3-letter short name:

@echo off
for /F "skip=1 tokens=2-4 delims=(-/)" %%A in ('date ^< NUL') do (
   for /F "tokens=1-3 delims=/" %%a in ("%date%") do (
      set %%A=%%a
      set %%B=%%b
      set %%C=%%c
   )
)
set /A mm=10%mm% %% 100, dd=10%dd% %% 100
if %mm% lss 3 set /A mm+=12, yy-=1
set /A a=yy/100, b=a/4, c=2-a+b, e=36525*(yy+4716)/100, f=306*(mm+1)/10, 

dow=(c+dd+e+f-1523)%%7 + 1
for /F "tokens=%dow%" %%a in ("Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat") do set dow=%%a
echo Today log data > Day-%dow%.txt

Regards,

Antonio