xsd:duration

The type xsd:duration represents a duration of time expressed as a number of years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. The format of xsd:duration is PnYnMnDTnHnMnS, where P is a literal value that starts the expression, nY is the number of years followed by a literal Y, nM is the number of months followed by a literal M, nD is the number of days followed by a literal D, T is a literal value that separates the date and time, nH is the number of hours followed by a literal H, nM is the number of minutes followed by a literal M, and nS is the number of seconds followed by a literal S. The following rules apply to xsd:duration values:

Any of these numbers and corresponding designators may be absent if they are equal to 0, but at least one number and designator must appear.
The numbers may be any unsigned integer, with the exception of the number of seconds, which may be an unsigned decimal number.
If a decimal point appears in the number of seconds, there must be at least one digit after the decimal point.
A minus sign may appear before the P to specify a negative duration.
If no time items (hour, minute, second) are present, the letter T must not appear.

Simple Type Information

Namespace: http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema

Schema Document: datatypes.xsd

Content

Based on xsd:anySimpleType
White Space: collapse

Examples

Valid values	Comment
`P2Y6M5DT12H35M30S`	2 years, 6 months, 5 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes, 30 seconds
`P1DT2H`	1 day, 2 hours
`P20M`	20 months (the number of months can be more than 12)
`PT20M`	20 minutes
`P0Y20M0D`	20 months (0 is permitted as a number, but is not required)
`P0Y`	0 years
`-P60D`	minus 60 days
`PT1M30.5S`	1 minute, 30.5 seconds
Invalid values	Comment
`P-20M`	the minus sign must appear first
`P20MT`	no time items are present, so "`T`" must not be present
`P1YM5D`	no value is specified for months, so "`M`" must not be present
`P15.5Y`	only the seconds can be expressed as a decimal
`P1D2H`	"`T`" must be present to separate days and hours
`1Y2M`	"`P`" must always be present
`P2M1Y`	years must appear before months
`P`	at least one number and designator are required
`PT15.S`	at least one digit must follow the decimal point if it appears
	an empty value is not valid, unless `xsi:nil` is used

Type Inheritance Chain

xsd:anySimpleType
- restricted by xsd:duration
  - restricted by xsd:dayTimeDuration
  - restricted by xsd:yearMonthDuration