The generation of the current timestamp is a common requirement in performance testing. Either you need to pass the current timestamp in epoch format or ISO format. JMeter has some time-related functions in the function library which meet the requirement to generate the current, past or future timestamp using offset.
__time() function in JMeter
This function is used to generate the current timestamp in different formats. __time() has two arguments i.e. Time Format and Name of Variable and both are optional. __time() function without any argument returns the current time in epoch format.
| Function | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ${__time()} | 1603188484750 | Current Time in Epoch Format in milliseconds |
| ${__time(/1000)} | 1603188484 | Current Time in Epoch Format in seconds |
| ${__time(yyyy)} | 2020 | Current Year |
| ${__time(MM)} | 10 | Current Month in digit |
| ${__time(MMM)} | Oct | 3 letters of the Current Month |
| ${__time(MMMM)} | October | Full spell of Current Month |
| ${__time(d)} / ${__time(dd)} | 1 / 01 or 21 / 21 | Current Day in one or two digits |
| ${__time(h)} / ${__time(hh)} | 1 / 01 or 11 / 23 | Current Hour in one or two digits in 12-hour format (1-12) |
| ${__time(H)} / ${__time(HH)} | 1 / 01 or 11 / 23 | Current Hour in one or two digits in 24-hour format (0-23) |
| ${__time(k)} / ${__time(kk)} | 1 / 01 or 11 / 23 | Current Hour in one or two digits in 24-hour format (1-24) |
| ${__time(K)} / ${__time(KK)} | 1 / 01 or 11 / 23 | Current Hour in one or two digits in 12-hour format (0-11) |
| ${__time(m)} / ${__time(mm)} | 5/ 05 or 15 / 15 | Current Minute in one or two digits |
| ${__time(s)} / ${__time(ss)} | 2/ 02 or 19 / 19 | Current Second in one or two digits |
| ${__time(S)} / ${__time(SS)} / ${__time(SSS)} | 3/ 03 / 003 or 13 / 13 / 013 or 310 / 310 / 310 | Current Millisecond in one, two or three digits |
| ${__time(a)} | AM or PM | Current Meridian |
| ${__time(z)} | IST | Timezone |
| ${__time(Z)} | +0530 | Timezone offset in hours (RFC pattern) |
| ${__time(XXX)} | +05:30 | Timezone offset in ISO format |
| ${__time(u)} | 3 | Current Day Number (1 – Monday, 2 – Tuesday, 3 – Wednesday, 4 – Thursday, 5 – Friday, 6 – Saturday, 7 – Sunday ) |
| ${__time(E)} / ${__time(EEEE)} | Wed / Wednesday | Current Day in letters |
| ${__time(D)} | 295 | Current day count in the year |
| ${__time(W)} | 4 | Week in a month (1 – First week, 2 – Second week) |
| ${__time(w)} | 43 | Week in a year |
| ${__time(G)} | AD | Current Era |
If you want to pass the current timestamp (in epoch format) in the request then you can directly use ${__time()} else you can use the above-mentioned argument and generate the value in desired time format.
Example: ${__time(yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss:SSS a XXX)} will generate 2020-10-21-11:16:38:966 AM +05:30
In case you want to save the value in a variable then add a variable name next to the format separated by a comma.
${__time(yy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss:SSS, cTime)}
Use ${cTime} variable wherever you want to pass the generated value.
__timeShift() function in JMeter
_timeShift() function is used to generate the past or future date during the performance test. It has five input arguments, among them 2 are optional.
- Time Format: Refer to the above table (Table 01) and use the argument to create the time format string. e.g. yy-MM-dd
- Date to Shift: By default, it uses the current timestamp. In case you want to shift the date/time from a particular date/time then specify it. e.g. 2020-10-20
- How much shift: Specify the amount of day/time to shift
- P denotes Parse for a future date
- -P denotes Parse for a past date
- PT denotes Parse for a future time
- -PT denotes Parse for a past time
- D denotes Day
- H denotes Hour
- M denotes Minute
- S denotes Second
- String Format (Optional)
- Name of variable (Optional)
Example:
- ${__timeShift(yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,,P2D,,)} will generate a future date by adding 2 days in the current day
- ${__timeShift(yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,,PT2H,,)} will generate a future time by adding 2 hours in the current time
- ${__timeShift(yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,,PT2M,,)} will generate a future time by adding 2 minutes in the current time
- ${__timeShift(yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,,P2DT2H,,)} will generate a future date and time by adding 2 days and 2 hours in the current timestamp
- ${__timeShift(yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,,-PT2M,,)} will generate a past time by reducing 2 minutes in the current time
- ${__timeShift(yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,,-P2DT2H,,)} will generate a past date and time by reducing 2 days and 2 hours in the current timestamp
- ${__timeShift(yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,2020-10-20,P2D,,)} will generate 2020-10-22 which is the next 2nd day from the specified date.
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