MS-DOS date/time

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File Format
Name MS-DOS date/time
Ontology
Released 1981

MS-DOS date and MS-DOS time are data formats associated with MS-DOS. They are used in some file formats from the MS-DOS era.

Each is a 16-bit integer of packed bit-fields, not simple day or second counts since an origin (see spec below for exact bit field descriptions).

MS-DOS date represents a day in the range 1980 to 2099 (or maybe 2107, but dates after 2099 aren't always correctly handled).

MS-DOS time represents a 2-second interval within some day. The time is usually expected to be in "local time", and there is no indication of the time zone. This makes it fairly useless in the internet age.

Specifications

Related formats

Examples of file formats that use MS-DOS date/time:

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