4.3.10 Recurrence Rule
Basic Definition | Formal Definition | Description| Example
Basic Definition
- Value Name
- RECUR
- Purpose
- This value type is used to identify properties that contain a recurrence rule specification.
Formal Definition
The value type is defined by the following
notation:
recur = "FREQ"=freq *(
; either UNTIL or COUNT may appear in a 'recur',
; but UNTIL and COUNT MUST NOT occur in the same 'recur'
( ";" "UNTIL" "=" enddate ) /
( ";" "COUNT" "=" 1*DIGIT ) /
; the rest of these keywords are optional,
; but MUST NOT occur more than once
( ";" "INTERVAL" "=" 1*DIGIT ) /
( ";" "BYSECOND" "=" byseclist ) /
( ";" "BYMINUTE" "=" byminlist ) /
( ";" "BYHOUR" "=" byhrlist ) /
( ";" "BYDAY" "=" bywdaylist ) /
( ";" "BYMONTHDAY" "=" bymodaylist ) /
( ";" "BYYEARDAY" "=" byyrdaylist ) /
( ";" "BYWEEKNO" "=" bywknolist ) /
( ";" "BYMONTH" "=" bymolist ) /
( ";" "BYSETPOS" "=" bysplist ) /
( ";" "WKST" "=" weekday ) /
( ";" x-name "=" text )
)
freq = "SECONDLY" / "MINUTELY" / "HOURLY" / "DAILY"
/ "WEEKLY" / "MONTHLY" / "YEARLY"
enddate = date
enddate =/ date-time ;An UTC value
byseclist = seconds / ( seconds *("," seconds) )
seconds = 1DIGIT / 2DIGIT ;0 to 59
byminlist = minutes / ( minutes *("," minutes) )
minutes = 1DIGIT / 2DIGIT ;0 to 59
byhrlist = hour / ( hour *("," hour) )
hour = 1DIGIT / 2DIGIT ;0 to 23
bywdaylist = weekdaynum / ( weekdaynum *("," weekdaynum) )
weekdaynum = [([plus] ordwk / minus ordwk)] weekday
plus = "+"
minus = "-"
ordwk = 1DIGIT / 2DIGIT ;1 to 53
weekday = "SU" / "MO" / "TU" / "WE" / "TH" / "FR" / "SA"
;Corresponding to SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY,
;FRIDAY, SATURDAY and SUNDAY days of the week.
bymodaylist = monthdaynum / ( monthdaynum *("," monthdaynum) )
monthdaynum = ([plus] ordmoday) / (minus ordmoday)
ordmoday = 1DIGIT / 2DIGIT ;1 to 31
byyrdaylist = yeardaynum / ( yeardaynum *("," yeardaynum) )
yeardaynum = ([plus] ordyrday) / (minus ordyrday)
ordyrday = 1DIGIT / 2DIGIT / 3DIGIT ;1 to 366
bywknolist = weeknum / ( weeknum *("," weeknum) )
weeknum = ([plus] ordwk) / (minus ordwk)
bymolist = monthnum / ( monthnum *("," monthnum) )
monthnum = 1DIGIT / 2DIGIT ;1 to 12
bysplist = setposday / ( setposday *("," setposday) )
setposday = yeardaynum
Description
If the property permits, multiple "recur" values are specified by a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of values. The value type is a structured value consisting of a list of one or more recurrence grammar parts. Each rule part is defined by a NAME=VALUE pair. The rule parts are separated from each other by the SEMICOLON character (US-ASCII decimal 59). The rule parts are not ordered in any particular sequence. Individual rule parts MUST only be specified once.
The FREQ rule part identifies the type of recurrence rule. This rule part MUST be specified in the recurrence rule. Valid values include SECONDLY, to specify repeating events based on an interval of a second or more; MINUTELY, to specify repeating events based on an interval of a minute or more; HOURLY, to specify repeating events based on an interval of an hour or more; DAILY, to specify repeating events based on an interval of a day or more; WEEKLY, to specify repeating events based on an interval of a week or more; MONTHLY, to specify repeating events based on an interval of a month or more; and YEARLY, to specify repeating events based on an interval of a year or more.
The INTERVAL rule part contains a positive integer representing how often the recurrence rule repeats. The default value is "1", meaning every second for a SECONDLY rule, or every minute for a MINUTELY rule, every hour for an HOURLY rule, every day for a DAILY rule, every week for a WEEKLY rule, every month for a MONTHLY rule and every year for a YEARLY rule.
The UNTIL rule part defines a date-time value which bounds the recurrence rule in an inclusive manner. If the value specified by UNTIL is synchronized with the specified recurrence, this date or date-time becomes the last instance of the recurrence. If specified as a date-time value, then it MUST be specified in an UTC time format. If not present, and the COUNT rule part is also not present, the RRULE is considered to repeat forever.
The COUNT rule part defines the number of occurrences at which to range-bound the recurrence. The "DTSTART" property value, if specified, counts as the first occurrence.
The BYSECOND rule part specifies a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of seconds within a minute. Valid values are 0 to 59. The BYMINUTE rule part specifies a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of minutes within an hour. Valid values are 0 to 59. The BYHOUR rule part specifies a COMMA character (US- ASCII decimal 44) separated list of hours of the day. Valid values are 0 to 23.
The BYDAY rule part specifies a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of days of the week; MO indicates Monday; TU indicates Tuesday; WE indicates Wednesday; TH indicates Thursday; FR indicates Friday; SA indicates Saturday; SU indicates Sunday.
Each BYDAY value can also be preceded by a positive (+n) or negative (-n) integer. If present, this indicates the nth occurrence of the specific day within the MONTHLY or YEARLY RRULE. For example, within a MONTHLY rule, +1MO (or simply 1MO) represents the first Monday within the month, whereas -1MO represents the last Monday of the month. If an integer modifier is not present, it means all days of this type within the specified frequency. For example, within a MONTHLY rule, MO represents all Mondays within the month.
The BYMONTHDAY rule part specifies a COMMA character (ASCII decimal 44) separated list of days of the month. Valid values are 1 to 31 or -31 to -1. For example, -10 represents the tenth to the last day of the month.
The BYYEARDAY rule part specifies a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of days of the year. Valid values are 1 to 366 or -366 to -1. For example, -1 represents the last day of the year (December 31st) and -306 represents the 306th to the last day of the year (March 1st).
The BYWEEKNO rule part specifies a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of ordinals specifying weeks of the year. Valid values are 1 to 53 or -53 to -1. This corresponds to weeks according to week numbering as defined in [ISO 8601]. A week is defined as a seven day period, starting on the day of the week defined to be the week start (see WKST). Week number one of the calendar year is the first week which contains at least four (4) days in that calendar year. This rule part is only valid for YEARLY rules. For example, 3 represents the third week of the year.
Note: Assuming a Monday week start, week 53 can only occur when Thursday is January 1 or if it is a leap year and Wednesday is January 1.
The BYMONTH rule part specifies a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of months of the year. Valid values are 1 to 12.
The WKST rule part specifies the day on which the workweek starts. Valid values are MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA and SU. This is significant when a WEEKLY RRULE has an interval greater than 1, and a BYDAY rule part is specified. This is also significant when in a YEARLY RRULE when a BYWEEKNO rule part is specified. The default value is MO.
The BYSETPOS rule part specifies a COMMA character (US-ASCII decimal 44) separated list of values which corresponds to the nth occurrence within the set of events specified by the rule. Valid values are 1 to 366 or -366 to -1. It MUST only be used in conjunction with another BYxxx rule part. For example "the last work day of the month" could be represented as:
RRULE:FREQ=MONTHLY;BYDAY=MO,TU,WE,TH,FR;BYSETPOS=-1
Each BYSETPOS value can include a positive (+n) or negative (-n) integer. If present, this indicates the nth occurrence of the specific occurrence within the set of events specified by the rule.
If BYxxx rule part values are found which are beyond the available scope (ie, BYMONTHDAY=30 in February), they are simply ignored.
Information, not contained in the rule, necessary to determine the various recurrence instance start time and dates are derived from the Start Time (DTSTART) entry attribute. For example, "FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=1" doesn't specify a specific day within the month or a time. This information would be the same as what is specified for DTSTART.
BYxxx rule parts modify the recurrence in some manner. BYxxx rule parts for a period of time which is the same or greater than the frequency generally reduce or limit the number of occurrences of the recurrence generated. For example, "FREQ=DAILY;BYMONTH=1" reduces the number of recurrence instances from all days (if BYMONTH tag is not present) to all days in January. BYxxx rule parts for a period of time less than the frequency generally increase or expand the number of occurrences of the recurrence. For example, "FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=1,2" increases the number of days within the yearly recurrence set from 1 (if BYMONTH tag is not present) to 2.
If multiple BYxxx rule parts are specified, then after evaluating the specified FREQ and INTERVAL rule parts, the BYxxx rule parts are applied to the current set of evaluated occurrences in the following order: BYMONTH, BYWEEKNO, BYYEARDAY, BYMONTHDAY, BYDAY, BYHOUR, BYMINUTE, BYSECOND and BYSETPOS; then COUNT and UNTIL are evaluated. Here is an example of evaluating multiple BYxxx rule parts.
DTSTART;TZID=US-Eastern:19970105T083000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=2;BYMONTH=1;BYDAY=SU;BYHOUR=8,9; BYMINUTE=30
First, the "INTERVAL=2" would be applied to "FREQ=YEARLY" to arrive at "every other year". Then, "BYMONTH=1" would be applied to arrive at "every January, every other year". Then, "BYDAY=SU" would be applied to arrive at "every Sunday in January, every other year". Then, "BYHOUR=8,9" would be applied to arrive at "every Sunday in January at 8 AM and 9 AM, every other year". Then, "BYMINUTE=30" would be applied to arrive at "every Sunday in January at 8:30 AM and 9:30 AM, every other year". Then, lacking information from RRULE, the second is derived from DTSTART, to end up in "every Sunday in January at 8:30:00 AM and 9:30:00 AM, every other year". Similarly, if the BYMINUTE, BYHOUR, BYDAY, BYMONTHDAY or BYMONTH rule part were missing, the appropriate minute, hour, day or month would have been retrieved from the "DTSTART" property.
No additional content value encoding (i.e., BACKSLASH character encoding) is defined for this value type.
Example
The following is a rule which specifies 10 meetings which occur every other day: FREQ=DAILY;COUNT=10;INTERVAL=2 There are other examples specified in the "RRULE" specification.