How is Quartz cron different from standard cron?

Standard Unix cron has 5 fields starting from minute. Quartz has 6-7 fields starting from second. Quartz also adds special characters: ? (no specific value), L (last), W (nearest weekday), and # (nth weekday). Day-of-week numbering is 1-7 (Sunday=1) instead of 0-6.

What does the ? mean in Quartz cron?

The question mark means 'no specific value'. You must use it in either day-of-month or day-of-week (not both). It tells Quartz to not constrain on that day field. For example, 0 0 9 ? * 2-6 means 9 AM on weekdays - the ? says ignore day-of-month.

What does L mean in Quartz cron?

L means 'last'. In the day-of-month field, L means the last day of the month. In day-of-week, 6L means the last Friday of the month. You can also use L-3 to mean 3 days before the last day.

What does # mean in Quartz cron?

The # character lets you pick the Nth occurrence of a weekday. For example, 6#3 means the 3rd Friday of the month (Friday is 6 in Quartz where Sunday=1). Valid values are 1-5 for the occurrence number.

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Quartz Cron Expressions

Q: What is a Quartz cron expression?

A Quartz cron expression is a 6 or 7 field string used to schedule jobs in Java applications. The fields are: second, minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week, and optionally year. It's used by Java Quartz Scheduler, Spring Boot @Scheduled, and other enterprise schedulers.

The 6-field cron format used in Java and Spring Boot

What is a Quartz Cron Expression?

If you've used standard cron, Quartz cron is the same idea but with a few extras. It's the scheduling format used in Java Quartz Scheduler and Spring Boot. The big difference? It has 6 fields instead of 5 (it adds a seconds field) and comes with special characters that standard cron doesn't have.

Quick example: 0 0 9 ? * 2-6 means "every weekday at 9 AM, starting at 0 seconds".

The 6 Fields

A Quartz cron expression has 6 required fields (plus an optional 7th for year). Standard cron starts at minute - Quartz starts at second.

0 Second
0-59

0 Minute
0-59

9 Hour
0-23

? Day(M)
1-31

* Month
1-12

2-6 Day(W)
1-7

💡 Key difference: Standard cron uses 5 fields (no seconds) and numbers weekdays 0-6 (Sunday=0). Quartz uses 6 fields and numbers weekdays 1-7 (Sunday=1).

Quartz vs Standard Cron

	Standard Cron	Quartz Cron
Fields	5 (min, hr, day, month, weekday)	6-7 (sec, min, hr, day, month, weekday, year)
Seconds	❌ Not supported	✅ First field
Weekday	0-6 (Sunday=0)	1-7 (Sunday=1)
? character	❌ Not available	✅ Required in one day field
L, W, #	❌ Not available	✅ Last, weekday, nth
Used in	Linux crontab, GitHub Actions, K8s	Java Quartz, Spring Boot, Camunda

⚠️ Common mistake: Pasting a 5-field Linux cron expression into a Spring Boot @Scheduled annotation. It won't work - you need to add 0 at the start for seconds and adjust the weekday numbers.

Try the Quartz Cron Tool

Parse any expression, build new ones with dropdowns, and see the next 3 run times - all in your browser.

Open Quartz Cron Generator →

Special Characters

These are what make Quartz cron more powerful than standard cron. Standard cron supports *, ,, -, and / - Quartz adds four more.

`?` No specific value

Must be used in either day-of-month or day-of-week (but not both). It means "I don't care about this field". If you want to schedule by weekday, put ? in day-of-month. If you want to schedule by day of month, put ? in day-of-week.

Example: 0 0 9 ? * 2-6 - run at 9 AM on weekdays. The ? says "don't care which day of month it is".

`L` Last

In day-of-month: L means the last day of the month (could be 28, 29, 30, or 31). L-3 means 3 days before the last day.

In day-of-week: 6L means the last Friday of the month.

`W` Nearest weekday

Only works in day-of-month. 15W means "the nearest weekday to the 15th". If the 15th is a Saturday, it fires on Friday the 14th. If it's a Sunday, it fires on Monday the 16th. LW means the last weekday of the month.

`#` Nth weekday

Only works in day-of-week. 6#3 means "the 3rd Friday of the month" (Friday=6 in Quartz). 2#1 means "the 1st Monday". You can use 1-5 for the occurrence.

How the ? Character Works


flowchart TB
    A["0 0 9 ? * 2-6"] --> B[Quartz Parser]
    B --> C["Second: 0"]
    B --> D["Minute: 0"]
    B --> E["Hour: 9"]
    B --> F["Day of Month: ? (skip)"]
    B --> G["Month: * (every)"]
    B --> H["Day of Week: 2-6 (Mon-Fri)"]
    
    F -. ignored .-> I[Schedule]
    C --> I
    D --> I
    E --> I
    G --> I
    H --> I
    
    I --> J["Fires at 9:00:00 AM, Mon through Fri"]

One of the two day fields must always use ?. You can't constrain on both day-of-month and day-of-week at the same time.

Common Examples

0 0 12 * * ?

Every day at noon. The classic. Second 0, minute 0, hour 12, every day.

0 0 9 ? * 2-6

Weekdays at 9 AM. Monday (2) through Friday (6). Remember, Sunday is 1 in Quartz.

0 0/15 * * * ?

Every 15 minutes. Health checks, polling, cache refresh.

0 0 0 L * ?

Last day of every month at midnight. Month-end reports. The L handles the varying month lengths for you.

0 0 0 ? * 6#3

Third Friday of every month at midnight. The # picks the Nth occurrence of a weekday.

0 0 0 LW * ?

Last weekday of every month at midnight. Combines L and W - avoids weekends.

Converting Standard Cron to Quartz

Got a Linux cron expression and need to use it in Spring Boot? Here's how to convert:

# Standard cron (5 fields)

0 9 * * 1-5  ← weekdays at 9 AM

# Step 1: Add seconds (0) at the start

0 0 9 * * 1-5

# Step 2: Change weekday numbers (0-6 → 1-7)

0 0 9 * * 2-6

# Step 3: Add ? to day-of-month

0 0 9 ? * 2-6

# Final Quartz expression

0 0 9 ? * 2-6  ← same schedule, Quartz format

Quartz Scheduler in a Spring Boot App


flowchart TB
    subgraph SpringApp["Spring Boot Application"]
        A["@Scheduled(cron='0 0 9 ? * 2-6')"] --> B[Quartz Scheduler Engine]
        B --> C[Job Store]
        C --> D[Thread Pool]
    end
    
    D --> E[Execute Job]
    E --> F[Database Cleanup]
    E --> G[Send Emails]
    E --> H[Generate Reports]
    
    style SpringApp fill:#f0f9ff,stroke:#0369a1,stroke-width:2px
    style E fill:#fef3c7,stroke:#f59e0b,stroke-width:2px

In Spring Boot, you just annotate a method with @Scheduled and pass a Quartz cron expression. Spring handles the rest.

Where Quartz Cron Is Used

Java Quartz Scheduler: The original. Configure triggers with CronScheduleBuilder.cronSchedule("0 0 12 * * ?").
Spring Boot: Use @Scheduled(cron = "0 0 9 ? * 2-6") to schedule any method.
Apache Camel: Route scheduling with Quartz-format cron expressions.
Camunda / Activiti: BPM workflow engines use Quartz cron for timer events.