What is a cron expression format?
Five fields: minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), day of week (0-7). Examples: */15 * * * * (every 15 min), 0 0 * * * (daily midnight), 0 9 * * 1-5 (weekdays 9 AM), 0 0 * * 0 (Sundays at midnight).
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More FAQs in What Are Cron Jobs and Why Use Them in Node.js Scheduled Tasks Guide
A cron job is a scheduled task that runs automatically at fixed intervals using a cron expression (minute hour day month weekday). Examples: 0 0 * * * (daily at midnight), */15 * * * * (every 15 minutes), 0 9 * * 1-5 (weekdays at 9 AM). Used for cleanup, notifications, backups, and reports.
Install node-cron (npm install node-cron), then use cron.schedule('0 0 * * *', () => { ... }) to run a task daily at midnight. The cron expression specifies when to run, and the callback is the task to execute.
Cron uses human-readable expressions (0 0 * * * for daily at midnight) and can handle complex schedules (weekdays at 9 AM). setInterval uses milliseconds and is lost on restart. Use cron for daily/weekly tasks, setInterval for short intervals.
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