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CPP Date Time

The document discusses C++ date and time functions and structures. It describes the tm structure for representing date/time as well as important functions like time, ctime, localtime, and gmtime. Examples are provided to get the current local and UTC time, and format a tm structure.

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Jhon Savero
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121 views3 pages

CPP Date Time

The document discusses C++ date and time functions and structures. It describes the tm structure for representing date/time as well as important functions like time, ctime, localtime, and gmtime. Examples are provided to get the current local and UTC time, and format a tm structure.

Uploaded by

Jhon Savero
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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C++ DATE AND TIME

http://www.tuto rialspo int.co m/cplusplus/cpp_date _time .htm

Co pyrig ht tuto rials po int.co m

T he C++ standard library does not provide a proper date type. C++ inherits the structs and functions for date
and time manipulation from C. T o access date and time related functions and structures, you would need to
include <ctime> header file in your C++ prog ram.
T here are four time-related types: c loc k_t, time_t, size_t, and tm. T he types clock_t, size_t and time_t are
capable of representing the system time and date as some sort of integ er.
T he structure type tm holds the date and time in the form of a C structure having the following elements:
struct tm {
int tm_sec;
int tm_min;
int tm_hour;
int tm_mday;
int tm_mon;
int tm_year;
int tm_wday;
int tm_yday;
int tm_isdst;
}

//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//

seconds of minutes from 0 to 61


minutes of hour from 0 to 59
hours of day from 0 to 24
day of month from 1 to 31
month of year from 0 to 11
year since 1900
days since sunday
days since January 1st
hours of daylight savings time

Following are the important functions, which we use while working with date and time in C or C++. All these
functions are part of standard C and C++ library and you can check their detail using reference to C++ standard
library g iven below.

SN

Func tion & Purpose

time_t time(time_t *time);


T his returns the current calendar time of the system in number of seconds elapsed since January 1,
1970. If the system has no time, .1 is returned.

c har *c time(c onst time_t *time);


T his returns a pointer to a string of the form day month year hours:minutes:seconds year\n\0.

struc t tm *loc altime(c onst time_t *time);


T his returns a pointer to the tm structure representing local time.

c loc k_t c loc k(void);


T his returns a value that approximates the amount of time the calling prog ram has been running . A value
of .1 is returned if the time is not available.

c har * asc time ( c onst struc t tm * time );


T his returns a pointer to a string that contains the information stored in the structure pointed to by time
converted into the form: day month date hours:minutes:seconds year\n\0

struc t tm *g mtime(c onst time_t *time);


T his returns a pointer to the time in the form of a tm structure. T he time is represented in Coordinated
Universal T ime (UT C), which is essentially Greenwich Mean T ime (GMT ).

time_t mktime(struc t tm *time);


T his returns the calendar-time equivalent of the time found in the structure pointed to by time.

double difftime ( time_t time2, time_t time1 );


T his function calculates the difference in seconds between time1 and time2.

size_t strftime();
T his function can be used to format date and time a specific format.

Current date and time:


Consider you want to retrieve the current system date and time, either as a local time or as a Coordinated
Universal T ime (UT C). Following is the example to achieve the same:
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;
int main( )
{
// current date/time based on current system
time_t now = time(0);
// convert now to string form
char* dt = ctime(&now);
cout << "The local date and time is: " << dt << endl;
// convert now to tm struct for UTC
tm *gmtm = gmtime(&now);
dt = asctime(gmtm);
cout << "The UTC date and time is:"<< dt << endl;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:
The local date and time is: Sat Jan
The UTC date and time is:Sun Jan

8 20:07:41 2011

9 03:07:41 2011

Format time using struct tm:


T he tm structure is very important while working with date and time in either C or C++. T his structure holds the
date and time in the form of a C structure as mentioned above. Most of the time related functions makes use of tm
structure. Following is an example which makes use of various date and time related functions and tm structure:
While using structure in this chapter, I'm making an assumption that you have basic understanding on C structure
and how to access structure members using arrow -> operator.
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;
int main( )
{
// current date/time based on current system
time_t now = time(0);
cout << "Number of sec since January 1,1970:" << now << endl;
tm *ltm = localtime(&now);
// print various components of tm structure.
cout << "Year: "<< 1900 + ltm->tm_year << endl;
cout << "Month: "<< 1 + ltm->tm_mon<< endl;
cout << "Day: "<< ltm->tm_mday << endl;
cout << "Time: "<< 1 + ltm->tm_hour << ":";
cout << 1 + ltm->tm_min << ":";
cout << 1 + ltm->tm_sec << endl;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:
Number of sec since January 1, 1970:1294548238

Year: 2011
Month: 1
Day: 8
Time: 22: 44:59

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