Cron expression : run every midnight 23:59:59

Is there any difference between 59 59 23 * * * and 59 59 23 * * ?

I didn't think a question mark was allowed in a crontab file. I did a quick google, and found there is a cron extension that allows it in the first four positions.

I'm really not sure what would happen if you put it in the last spot.

What OS/Cron are you using?

Saurabh Pillai wrote:Is there any difference between 59 59 23 * * * and 59 59 23 * * ?

Yes. Apologies for stating the bleedin' obvious, but one has five components and the other has 6.

And what that means almost certainly is that one form is invalid (I suspect the first).

Also: what does this have to do with Java?

Winston

It is Windows 7. and I use http://www.quartz-scheduler.org/api/2.1.0/org/quartz/CronExpression.html , that is why I thought to post it to Java forum.

Winston Gutkowski wrote:

Saurabh Pillai wrote:Is there any difference between 59 59 23 * * * and 59 59 23 * * ?

Yes. Apologies for stating the bleedin' obvious, but one has five components and the other has 6.

I assumed the two cron expressions were

59 59 23 * * *

and

59 59 23 * * ?

both have six components. But it is hard to tell from the original post which is the correct interpretation.

Also, I moved the thread to General Computing.

Saurabh Pillai wrote:It is Windows 7. and I use http://www.quartz-scheduler.org/api/2.1.0/org/quartz/CronExpression.html , that is why I thought to post it to Java forum.

Well, for future reference, please TellTheDetails (←click), because that makes a huge difference.

From what I can see, the CronExpression class requires 6 fields (standard Unix cron only has 5), and the ? in the final one (which I took to be part of your question) means 'no specific value', which I suspect equates to the same thing as *; but not having used the system, I can't be sure.

My advice: suck it and see.

Winston