同Matlab一样，IDL同样包含了日期和时间函数，通过这些函数可以实现特定的需求。
函数名称 功能描述
BIN_DATE - Converts ASCII date/time string to binary string.-标准日期时间字符串转换成6元素日期数组
CALDAT - Converts Julian date to month, day, year.-儒略日转为年月日
CALL_EXTERNAL - Displays a calendar for a given month or year.-根据输入日期显示日历 同CALENDAR
JULDAY - Returns Julian Day Number for given month, day, and year.-年月日转为儒略日
SYSTIME - Returns the current system time as either a string, the number of seconds, or as a Julian date.-返回当前系统时间
TIC - Start the tick/tock clock for measuring elapsed time.-计算花费时间
TOC - Stop the tick/tock clock for measuring elapsed time.
TIMEGEN - Returns an array of Julian date/time values.-获取儒略日格式的数组
TIMESTAMP - Returns a date/time string in ISO-8601 format.-获得ISO-8601格式时间
1 timestamp_string = TIMESTAMP(YEAR = 2012, MONTH = 9, $ 2 DAY = 4, HOUR = 11, MINUTE = 25, SECOND = 15) 3 PRINT, timestamp_string 4 5 >2012-09-04T11:25:15Z
TIMESTAMPTOVALUES - Returns the date and time, given a date/time string in ISO-8601 format.-根据ISO-8601格式时间获得日期和时间
1 timestamp_string = '2012-09-04T11:25:15-06:00' 2 3 TIMESTAMPTOVALUES, timestamp_string, $ 4 YEAR=year, MONTH=month, DAY=day, $ 5 HOUR=hour, MINUTE=minute, $ 6 SECOND=second, OFFSET=offset 7 PRINT, month, day, year, hour, minute, second, offset 8 9 >9 4 2012 11 25 15.000000 -6.000000