Durations

Durations are serialized to conform with ISO 8601 and are represented by the following format:

P[n]Y[n]M[n]DT[n]H[n]M[n]S 

• P: This is the duration designator (historically called "period") placed at the start of the duration representation
• Y: This is the year designator that follows the value for the number of years
• M: This is the month designator that follows the value for the number of months
• W: This is the week designator that follows the value for the number of weeks
• D: This is the day designator that follows the value for the number of days
• T: This is the time designator that precedes the time components of the representation
• H: This is the hour designator that follows the value for the number of hours
• M: This is the minute designator that follows the value for the number of minutes
• S: This is the second designator that follows the value for the number of seconds

For example, P3Y6M4DT12H30M5S represents a duration of "three years, six months, four days, twelve hours, thirty minutes, and five seconds".