Print current date and time in C

Write a C program to print current date and time in standard output.

We know that time.h header file contains definitions of functions to get and manipulate date and time information. The following C source code prints the current date and time to the standard output stream using tm structure which holds calendar date and time broken down into its components.

C implementation –

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<time.h>

// Print current date and time in C
int main(void)
{
	// variables to store date and time components
	int hours, minutes, seconds, day, month, year;

	// time_t is arithmetic time type
	time_t now;
	
	// Obtain current time
	// time() returns the current time of the system as a time_t value
	time(&now);

	// Convert to local time format and print to stdout
	printf("Today is : %s", ctime(&now));

	// localtime converts a time_t value to calendar time and 
	// returns a pointer to a tm structure with its members 
	// filled with the corresponding values
	struct tm *local = localtime(&now);

    hours = local->tm_hour;      	// get hours since midnight (0-23)
    minutes = local->tm_min;     	// get minutes passed after the hour (0-59)
    seconds = local->tm_sec;     	// get seconds passed after minute (0-59)

    day = local->tm_mday;        	// get day of month (1 to 31)
    month = local->tm_mon + 1;   	// get month of year (0 to 11)
    year = local->tm_year + 1900;	// get year since 1900

	// print local time
	if (hours < 12)	// before midday
		printf("Time is : %02d:%02d:%02d am\n", hours, minutes, seconds);

	else	// after midday
		printf("Time is : %02d:%02d:%02d pm\n", hours - 12, minutes, seconds);

	// print current date
	printf("Date is : %02d/%02d/%d\n", day, month, year);

	return 0;
}

#include<stdio.h>

#include<stdlib.h>

#include<time.h>

// Print current date and time in C

int main(void)

{

// variables to store date and time components

int hours, minutes, seconds, day, month, year;

// time_t is arithmetic time type

time_t now;

// Obtain current time

// time() returns the current time of the system as a time_t value

time(&now);

// Convert to local time format and print to stdout

printf("Today is : %s", ctime(&now));

// localtime converts a time_t value to calendar time and

// returns a pointer to a tm structure with its members

// filled with the corresponding values

struct tm *local = localtime(&now);

hours = local->tm_hour; // get hours since midnight (0-23)

minutes = local->tm_min; // get minutes passed after the hour (0-59)

seconds = local->tm_sec; // get seconds passed after minute (0-59)

day = local->tm_mday; // get day of month (1 to 31)

month = local->tm_mon + 1; // get month of year (0 to 11)

year = local->tm_year + 1900; // get year since 1900

// print local time

if (hours < 12) // before midday

printf("Time is : %02d:%02d:%02d am\n", hours, minutes, seconds);

else // after midday

printf("Time is : %02d:%02d:%02d pm\n", hours - 12, minutes, seconds);

// print current date

printf("Date is : %02d/%02d/%d\n", day, month, year);

return 0;

}

Download Run Code

Output:

Today is : Sun Apr 2 23:23:59 2017
Time is : 11:23:59 pm
Date is : 02/04/2017

In C++ 11, we can also use std::chrono::system_clock::now() which returns a time point representing the current point in time.

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