[c] How to use __DATE__ and __TIME__ predefined macros in as two integers, then stringify?

I have a partial answer for you. This is based on what I get from GCC:

__DATE__ gives something like "Jul 27 2012"

__TIME__ gives something like 21:06:19

Put this text in an include file called build_defs.h:

#ifndef BUILD_DEFS_H

#define BUILD_DEFS_H


#define BUILD_YEAR ((__DATE__[7] - '0') * 1000 +  (__DATE__[8] - '0') * 100 + (__DATE__[9] - '0') * 10 + __DATE__[10] - '0')

#define BUILD_DATE ((__DATE__[4] - '0') * 10 + __DATE__[5] - '0')


#if 0
#if (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  1
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'F' && __DATE__[1] == 'e' && __DATE__[2] == 'b')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  2
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'r')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  3
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'p' && __DATE__[2] == 'r')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  4
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'M' && __DATE__[1] == 'a' && __DATE__[2] == 'y')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  5
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'n')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  6
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'J' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'l')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  7
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'A' && __DATE__[1] == 'u' && __DATE__[2] == 'g')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  8
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'S' && __DATE__[1] == 'e' && __DATE__[2] == 'p')
    #define BUILD_MONTH  9
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'O' && __DATE__[1] == 'c' && __DATE__[2] == 't')
    #define BUILD_MONTH 10
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'N' && __DATE__[1] == 'o' && __DATE__[2] == 'v')
    #define BUILD_MONTH 11
#elif (__DATE__[0] == 'D' && __DATE__[1] == 'e' && __DATE__[2] == 'c')
    #define BUILD_MONTH 12
#else
    #error "Could not figure out month"
#endif
#endif

#define BUILD_HOUR ((__TIME__[0] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[1] - '0')
#define BUILD_MIN ((__TIME__[3] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[4] - '0')
#define BUILD_SEC ((__TIME__[6] - '0') * 10 + __TIME__[7] - '0')

#endif // BUILD_DEFS_H

I tested the above with GCC on Linux. It all works great, except for the problem that I can't figure out how to get a number for the month. If you check the section that is under #if 0 you will see my attempt to figure out the month. GCC complains with this message:

error: token ""Jul 27 2012"" is not valid in preprocessor expressions

It would be trivial to convert the three-letter month abbreviation into some sort of unique number; just subtract 'A' from the first letter and 'a' from the second and the third, and then convert to a base-26 number or something. But I want to make it evaluate to 1 for January and so on, and I can't figure out how to do that.

EDIT: I just realized that you asked for strings, not expressions that evaluate to integer values.

I tried to use these tricks to build a static string:

#define BUILD_MAJOR 1
#define BUILD_MINOR 4
#define VERSION STRINGIZE(BUILD_MAJOR) "." STRINGIZE(BUILD_MINOR)

char build_str[] = {
    BUILD_MAJOR + '0', '.' BUILD_MINOR + '0', '.',
    __DATE__[7], __DATE__[8], __DATE__[9], __DATE__[10],
    '\0'
};

GCC complains that "initializer element is not constant" for __DATE__.

Sorry, I'm not sure how to help you. Maybe you can try this stuff with your compiler? Or maybe it will give you an idea.

Good luck.

P.S. If you don't need things to be numbers, and you just want a unique build string, it's easy:

const char *build_str = "Version: " VERSION " " __DATE__ " " __TIME__;

With GCC, this results in something like:

Version: 1.4 Jul 27 2012 21:53:59