Routines (alphabetical) > Routines: C > CDF Routines > CDF_PARSE_EPOCH

# CDF_PARSE_EPOCH

The CDF_PARSE_EPOCH function parses a properly-formatted input string into a double-precision value properly formatted for use as a CDF_EPOCH variable.

Note: CDF_EPOCH variables may be unparsed into a variety of formats using the CDF_ENCODE_EPOCH function.

## Examples

test_string = '04-Dec-1995 20:19:18.176'

test_epoch = CDF_PARSE_EPOCH(test_string)

HELP, test_string, test_epoch

PRINT, CDF_ENCODE_EPOCH(test_epoch, EPOCH=0)

#### IDL Output

TEST_STRING STRING = '04-Dec-1995 20:19:18.176'

TEST_EPOCH DOUBLE = 6.2985328e+13

04-Dec-1995 20:19:18.176

## Syntax

Result = CDF_PARSE_EPOCH(Epoch_string)

## Return Value

Returns the double-precision value of the input string properly formatted for use as a CDF_EPOCH variable.

## Arguments

### Epoch_string

A formatted string that will be parsed into a double precision value suitable to be used as a CDF_EPOCH value. The format of the date string is:

DD-Mon-YYYY hh:mm:ss.ccc

where:

Date Element | Represents
`DD` | the day of the month (1-31)
`Mon` | the abbreviated month name: (`Jan`, `Feb`, `Mar`, `Apr`, `May`, `Jun`, `Jul`, `Aug`, `Sep`, `Oct`, `Nov`, or `Dec`)
`YYYY` | the year (A.D.)
`hh` | the hour (0-23)
`mm` | the minute (0-59)
`ss` | the second (0-59)
`ccc` | the millisecond (0-999)

For more information about CDF_EPOCH values, see “Data Types” in the CDF User’s Guide.

## Keywords

None

## Version History

4.0.1b | Introduced

## See Also

CDF_ENCODE_EPOCH, CDF_EPOCH