Cron Expressions

Cron expressions are a standardized way to schedule tasks to be executed periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals. They are used to automate repetitive tasks in scheduling systems. Cron expressions are made up of five fields, each representing a different unit of time: minute, hour, day of the month, month, and day of the week. These fields allow you to specify a precise schedule for task execution.

Format

* * * * * [scheduled task]
| | | | |
| | | | +----- Day of the week
| | | +------- Month
| | +--------- Day of the month
| +----------- Hour
+------------- Minute

Field Name

Mandatory

Allowed Values

Allowed Special Characters

Minutes

YES

0-59

, - * /

Hours

YES

0-23

, - * /

Day of month

YES

1-31

, - * ? / L

Month

YES

1-12 or JAN-DEC

, - * /

Day of week

YES

SUN-SAT

, - * ? / L

Special Characters

  • * (“all values”):

    Selects all values within a field. For example, * in the minute field means “every minute.”

  • ? (“no specific value”):

    Used when specifying one field but not the other. For instance, 10 in the day-of-month field and ? in the day-of-week field means “on the 10th of any month, regardless of the day of the week.”

  • - (range):

    Specifies a range of values. For example, 10-12 in the hour field means “10, 11, and 12.”

  • , (additional values):

    Lists specific values. For example, MON,WED,FRI means “Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”

  • / (increments):

    Specifies intervals. For example, 0/15 in the seconds field means “every 15 seconds starting at 0,” and 1/3 in the day-of-month field means “every 3 days starting on the 1st.”

  • L (“last”):

    Indicates the last day of the month or week. (e.g., L means the last day of the month).

Note

When specifying both a day-of-week and a day-of-month value, use the ? character in one of the two fields. Omitting this will cause the cron expression to be considered invalid.

Examples

Cron Expression

Meaning

15 10 ? * 6

At 10:15am on the Friday of every week.

15 10 L * ?

At 10:15am on the last day of every month.

15 10 ? * MON-FRI

At 10:15am every Monday through Friday.

0/5 14 * * ?

Every 5 minutes starting at 2:00pm and ending at 2:55pm, every day.

Some Common cron expressions

Cron Expression

Meaning

0 * * * ? or 0 * ? * *

Run once an hour at the beginning of the hour.

0 0 * * ? or 0 0 ? * *

Run once a day at midnight.

0 0 ? * SUN

Run once a week at midnight on Sunday.

0 0 1 * ?

Run once a month at midnight of the first day of the month.

0 0 1 1 ?

Run once a year at midnight of 1 January.