ctime() Function in C/C++

The ctime() function is define in the time.h header file. The ctime() function returns the string representing the localtime based on the argument timer.

Syntax:

char *ctime(const time_t *timer)

Parameters: This function accepts single parameter time_ptr. It is used to set time_t object that contains a time value.

Return Value: This function returns a string that contains the date and time which is in human readable form.

Example:

Www Mmm dd hh:mm:ss yyyy

Time Complexity: O(1)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)

Note: The description of results are given below:

• Www: Day of week.
• Mmm: Month name.
• dd : Day of month.
• hh : Hour digit.
• mm : Minute digit.
• ss : Second digit.
• yyyy : Year digit.

Example:

C++

#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>


int main() {
    // create a time_t object representing 1 hour from now
    time_t one_hour_from_now = time(0) + 3600;

    // convert one_hour_from_now to string form
    char* dt = ctime(&one_hour_from_now);

    // print the date and time
    std::cout << "One hour from now, the date and time will be: " << dt << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

C

// C program to demonstrate
// ctime() function.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main () {
    time_t curtime;

    time(&curtime);

    printf("Current time = %s", ctime(&curtime));

    return(0);
}

Output:

One hour from now, the date and time will be: Thu Apr 13 09:01:46 2023