The format is "@every N unit". N is a positive integer. unit can be ns, µs, ms, s, m, or h. An @every expression means to invoke a function every N time units, as shown in Table 1.
The format is "seconds minutes hours day-of-month month day-of-week". day-of-week is optional. The fields must be separated from each other using a space. Table 2 describes the fields in a standard cron expression.
Parameter |
Description |
Value Range |
Special Characters Allowed |
---|---|---|---|
Seconds |
Yes |
0–59 |
, - * / |
Minutes |
Yes |
0–59 |
, - * / |
Hours |
Yes |
0–23 |
, - * / |
Day-of-month |
Yes |
1–31 |
, - * ? / |
Month |
Yes |
1–12 or Jan–Dec. The value is case-insensitive, as shown in Table 3. |
, - * / |
Day-of-week |
No |
0–6 or Sun–Sat. The value is case-insensitive, as shown in Table 4. 0 means Sunday. |
, - * ? / |
Month |
Digit |
Abbreviation |
---|---|---|
January |
1 |
Jan |
February |
2 |
Feb |
March |
3 |
Mar |
April |
4 |
Apr |
May |
5 |
May |
June |
6 |
Jun |
July |
7 |
Jul |
August |
8 |
Aug |
September |
9 |
Sep |
October |
10 |
Oct |
November |
11 |
Nov |
December |
12 |
Dec |
Day of Week |
Digit |
Abbreviation |
---|---|---|
Monday |
1 |
Mon |
Tuesday |
2 |
Tue |
Wednesday |
3 |
Wed |
Thursday |
4 |
Thu |
Friday |
5 |
Fri |
Saturday |
6 |
Sat |
Sunday |
0 |
Sun |
Table 5 describes the special characters that can be used in a cron expression.
Special Character |
Meaning |
Description |
---|---|---|
* |
Used to specify all values within a field. |
* in the minutes field means every minute. |
, |
Used to specify multiple values, which can be discontinuous. |
For example, "Jan,Apr,Jul,Oct" or "1,4,7,10" in the month field and "Sat,Sun" or "6,0" in the day-of-week field. |
- |
Used to specify a range. |
For example, "0-3" in the minutes field. |
? |
Used to specify something in one of the two fields in which the character is allowed, but not the other. |
You can specify something only in the day-of-month or day-of-week field. For example, if you want your function to be executed on a particular day (such as the 10th) of the month, but do not care what day of the week that is, then put "10" in the day-of-month field and "?" in the day-of-week field. |
/ |
Used to specify increments. The character before the slash indicates when to start, and the one after the slash represents the increment. |
For example, "1/3" in the minutes field means to trigger the function every 3 minutes starting from 00:01:00 of the hour. |
Table 6 describes several example cron expressions.
Function Scheduling Example |
Cron Expression (UTC Time) |
---|---|
12:00 every day |
0 0 4 * * * |
12:30 every day |
0 30 4 * * * |
26th, 29th, and 33rd minutes of each hour |
0 26,29,33 * * * * |
12:30 from Monday to Friday |
0 30 4 ? * MON-FRI |
Every 5 minutes during 12:00 and 14:00 from Monday to Friday |
0 0/5 4-6 ? * MON-FRI |
12:00 every day from January to April |
0 0 4 ? JAN,FEB,MAR,APR * |