# The Cal Command


Hey all, this is Brian and I want to show you the `cal` command. It's a great
little utility that you've already got installed on your mac or Linux machine.

You already know that you can use the `date` command to get today's date on the screen.

But sometimes you need to get a look at the week, month, or year. Rather than
switching away to your phone, your calendar app, or finding a paper calendar,
use the `cal` command instead.

```command
cal
```

```output
    January 2019
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
       1  2  3  4  5
 6  7  8  9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
```

That's handy. You can also get a calendar for the whole year:

```command
cal 2019
```

My birthday is in October, so I want to see what October looks like, so I can do that by specifying the month and year:

```command
cal october 2019
```

```output
    October 2019
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
       1  2  3  4  5
 6  7  8  9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
```

The `ncal` command rotates the calendar:

```command
cal january 2019
```

```output
    January 2019
Mo     7 14 21 28
Tu  1  8 15 22 29
We  2  9 16 23 30
Th  3 10 17 24 31
Fr  4 11 18 25
Sa  5 12 19 26
Su  6 13 20 27
```

If you use the `-w` switch, `ncal` will display the week numbers too.


```command
ncal -w
```

```output
    January 2019
Mo     7 14 21 28
Tu  1  8 15 22 29
We  2  9 16 23 30
Th  3 10 17 24 31
Fr  4 11 18 25
Sa  5 12 19 26
Su  6 13 20 27
    1  2  3  4  5
```

These commands print text to the screen, but remember you can use redirection to save them to a file, or even use them in a startup script to display a calendar when you log in.

When you're already in the Terminal, the `cal` and `ncal` commands can save you a small bit of time. Reach for them next time you need to confirm a day and date.