What is the value of the ISO 8601 duration `P1M` (in seconds)?

Question

Suppose I have an ISO 8601 duration, expressed as \"P1M\". Phrased colloquially, this means \"one month.\" Is there a standard rule for converting this into a n

Answer 1

You are right, an ISO 8601 duration is dependent of the context. A duration is a period/an interval of time between two dates.

Example :

2020-01-01/2020-02-01 = P1M = P31D
2020-02-01/2020-03-01 = P1M = P29D
2019-02-01/2019-03-01 = P1M = P28D

If you want a fixed duration indepedent of the context, use the day notation P30D, P60D, P90D... instead.

The same applies for years :

2019-01-01/2020-01-01 = P1Y = P12M = P365D
2020-01-01/2021-01-01 = P1Y = P12M = P366D

If you can't have context information about a duration, for example P1M retrieved from database or given by user input, use by default today's context.

//What is a duration of one month in seconds ?
P1M = ? (no context)
//Use default context
Today = 2020-03-31
2020-03-31/P1M = 2020-03-31/2020-04-31
=> P1M = P30D
//A month contains 2 592 000 seconds