RFE: Implement date parsing and formatting on Windows just as on other platforms

[Alanscut]

The parameter strptime of jq-win64_1.6.exe does not work properly.
for example:

windows-64:

# echo '"2015-03-05T23:51:47Z"' | ./jq-win64_1.6.exe 'strptime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")'
jq: error (at <stdin>:1): strptime/1 not implemented on this platform

# echo '"2015-03-05T23:51:47Z"' | ./jq-win64_1.6.exe 'fromdate'
jq: error (at <stdin>:1): strptime/1 not implemented on this platform


unbutu:
root@oss-001:test_jq#  echo '"2015-03-05T23:51:47Z"' | jq 'strptime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")'
[
  2015,
  2,
  5,
  23,
  51,
  47,
  4,
  63
]
root@oss-001:test_jq#  echo '"2015-03-05T23:51:47Z"'| jq 'fromdate'
1425599507

[matijasx]

Same issue for me when using jq's fromdateiso8601 function on Windows 10 build 19042.631.

[MarkSte]

Same issue for me when using jq's fromdateiso8601 function on Windows 10 build 19045.2486,

[Pradeep-Lokhande]

same issue for me when using jq's fromdateiso8601 function on windows server 2016.

[alikzalikz]

same issue for me when using jq's fromdateiso8601 function on windows 11

[eli-hu]

I see that the recent jq-1.8.0 release added #3008, #3094, #3071, and the release notes say:

• Provide strptime/1 on all systems. @george-hopkins @fdellwing Provide strptime implementation on all systems #3008 Add strptime fallback not only for Windows #3094
• Fix _WIN32 port of strptime. @emanuele6 util.c: fix _WIN32 port of strptime #3071

but I'm guessing that this particular ticket #2071 isn't quite complete yet. I've tried both the -amd64 and the -i386 builds, in case those #ifdef WIN32 actually are specific to the 32-bit build, and I'm still getting strptime/1 only supports ISO 8601 on this platform:

With Windows 11, git-bash (my normal setup):

$ echo '{"date": "2025-05-01T00:00:00Z"}' | jq '.date | strptime("%F")'
jq: error (at <stdin>:1): strptime/1 only supports ISO 8601 on this platform

With Windows 11 cmd window (not my normal setup, so I may be typing this incorrectly), I get:

$ echo '{"date": "2025-05-01T00:00:00Z"}' | jq '.date | strptime("%F")'
'strptime' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

$ echo '{"date": "2025-05-01T00:00:00Z"}' | jq-windows-i386.exe '.date | strptime("%F")'
'strptime' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

$ jq --version
jq-1.8.0

$ jq-windows-i386.exe --version
jq-1.8.0

Ultimately, what I'm looking for is for this to work on Windows as it does on my Mac (even in 1.7.1):

$ echo '{"date": "August 5, 1975"}' | jq '.date | strptime("%B %d, %Y")'

[itchyny]

The error message comes from 0fc8200, which implemented strptime fallback using sscanf. After that, fdab39b included strptime from NetBSD. So I think we can drop the #ifdef in f_strptime but am I correct? Also we have to include the license in COPYING. CC: @wader

[wader]

I think we came to a similar conclusion in the issue millisecond parsing #1409

[itchyny]

@eli-hu @Alanscut Could you test the executable built here?

[itchyny]

Is there any Windows user able to test the executable as above comment?

[wader]

I've mostly used wine to test windows binaries but it feels a bit shaky to use to testing time stuff maybe? The other alternative might be windows dev ISO images from microsoft https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/ but they are giant and in my experience slow to use for development.