Cron Expressions
Cron Expressions
Cron expressions are used to define the schedule for your recurring tasks. In Croncode, every generated script is accompanied by a standard 5-segment cron expression.
Anatomy of a Cron Expression
A standard cron expression consists of five fields separated by spaces:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 - 31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of the week (0 - 6) (Sunday to Saturday)
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *
Common Operators
*(Asterisk): Matches all values. For example,*in the minute field means “every minute.”,(Comma): Defines a list of values.1,15,30in the minute field means “at 1, 15, and 30 minutes past every hour.”-(Hyphen): Defines a range of values.9-17in the hour field means “every hour from 9 AM to 5 PM.”/(Slash): Defines an interval.*/15in the minute field means “every 15 minutes.”
Examples
| Minute | Hour | Day | Month | Day of Week | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allowed Values | 0-59 | 0-23 | 1-31 | 1-12 | 0-6 |
| Basic Examples | * * * * * every minute * 1 * * * 01:00 - 01:59 | 0 7 * * * 7AM every day | 0 7 1 * * 7AM on the 1st day of the month | 5 * * * 1 every 5 minutes in January | 5 * * * 1 every 5 minutes on Monday |
| Interval | */15 * * * * every 15th minute | * */2 * * * every other hour | 0 7 */5 * * 7AM every 5th day of the month | 0 0 1 */3 * midnight every 1st day of every 3rd month | 0 15 * * */4 3PM every 4th day of the week |
| List | 1,15,30 * * * * 1, 15, and 30 minutes past every hour | 5 8,12,18 * * * 5 minutes past every 8AM, 12PM, 6PM | 30 7 1,15 * * 7:30AM on 1st and 15th day of every month | 30 7 * 1,6,12 * 7:30AM every day in January, June, December | * * * * 1,3,5 every minute of Monday, Wednesday, Friday |
| Range | 15-30 * * * * every minute 15-30 past the hour | 0 9-17 * * 1-5 top of every hour 9AM - 5PM on Monday - Friday | 0 * 1-29 * * midnight every day 1-29 of every month | 0 * * 1-7 * midnight every day January - July | 0 * * * 1-5 midnight Monday - Friday |
How Croncode Uses Them
When you describe your task to Croncode, the AI interprets your natural language (e.g., “every Tuesday morning at 10”) and generates the corresponding expression (0 10 * * 2). This expression is then used by your server’s crontab to schedule the script’s execution.
For more complex scheduling needs, don’t hesitate to ask Croncode to refine your expression.