The difftime() is a C Library function that returns the difference in time, in seconds(i.e. ending time – starting time). It takes two parameters of type time_t and computes the time difference in seconds. The difftime() function is defined inside the <time.h> header file.
Syntax
The syntax of difftime() function is as follows:
double difftime(time_t time2, time_t time1);
Parameters
The difftime() function takes two parameters:
- time1: Lower bound of the time interval whose length is calculated.
- time2: Higher bound of the time interval whose length is calculated.
where time1 and time2 are variables of type time_t which is a predefined structure for calendar times.
Return Value
- Returns the difference between time1 and time2 (as measured in seconds).
Example of difftime() in C
C
// C program to demonstrate working of difftime() #include <stdio.h> #include <time.h> #include <unistd.h> // Driver Code int main()
{ int sec;
time_t time1, time2;
// Current time
time (&time1);
for (sec = 1; sec <= 6; sec++)
sleep(1);
// time after sleep in loop.
time (&time2);
printf ( "Difference is %.2f seconds" ,
difftime (time2, time1));
return 0;
} |
Output
Difference is 6.00 seconds
Exception in difftime()
- It never throws an exception.