How to get current time and date in C

Question

Is there a cross-platform way to get the current date and time in C

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include  lt Windows h gt   void main            Following is a structure to store date   time  SYSTEMTIME SystemTime  LocalTime         To get the local time  int loctime   GetLocalTime  amp LocalTime          To get the system time  int systime   GetSystemTime  amp SystemTime

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include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt time h gt   int main        time t rawtime    struct tm   timeinfo     time    amp rawtime      timeinfo   localtime    amp rawtime      printf    Current local time and date   s   asctime  timeinfo        return 0

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You can also directly use ctime       include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt time h gt   int main        time t rawtime    struct tm   timeinfo     time    amp rawtime      printf    Current local time and date   s   ctime   amp rawtime        return 0

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std C libraries provide time    This is seconds from the epoch and can be converted to date and H M S using standard C functions  Boost also has a time date library that you can check   time t  timev  time  amp timev

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In C   11 you can use std  chrono  system clock  now    Example  copied from en cppreference com     include  lt iostream gt   include  lt chrono gt   include  lt ctime gt       int main         auto start   std  chrono  system clock  now           Some computation here     auto end   std  chrono  system clock  now         std  chrono  duration lt double gt  elapsed seconds   end-start      std  time t end time   std  chrono  system clock  to time t end        std  cout  lt  lt   finished computation at    lt  lt  std  ctime  amp end time                 lt  lt   elapsed time     lt  lt  elapsed seconds count    lt  lt   s n       This should print something like this   finished computation at Mon Oct  2 00 59 08 2017 elapsed time  1 88232s

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you could use C   11 time class        include  lt iostream gt       include  lt iomanip gt      using namespace std       int main             time t now   chrono  system clock  to time t chrono  system clock  now            cout  lt  lt  put time localtime  amp now     F  T    lt  lt   endl        return 0           out put   2017-08-25 12 30 08

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I found this link pretty useful for my implementation  C   Date and Time  Here s the code I use in my implementation  to get a clear  YYYYMMDD HHMMSS  output format  The param in is for switching between UTC and local time  You can easily modify my code to suite your need     include  lt iostream gt   include  lt ctime gt   using namespace std          This function gets the current date time     param useLocalTime true if want to use local time  default to false  UTC      return current datetime in the format of  YYYYMMDD HHMMSS       string getCurrentDateTime bool useLocalTime        stringstream currentDateTime         current date time based on current system     time t ttNow   time 0       tm   ptmNow       if  useLocalTime          ptmNow   localtime  amp ttNow       else         ptmNow   gmtime  amp ttNow        currentDateTime  lt  lt  1900   ptmNow- gt tm year         month     if  ptmNow- gt tm mon  lt  9            Fill in the leading 0 if less than 10         currentDateTime  lt  lt   0   lt  lt  1   ptmNow- gt tm mon      else         currentDateTime  lt  lt   1   ptmNow- gt tm mon          day     if  ptmNow- gt tm mday  lt  10          currentDateTime  lt  lt   0   lt  lt  ptmNow- gt tm mday  lt  lt           else         currentDateTime  lt  lt   ptmNow- gt tm mday  lt  lt              hour     if  ptmNow- gt tm hour  lt  10          currentDateTime  lt  lt   0   lt  lt  ptmNow- gt tm hour      else         currentDateTime  lt  lt  ptmNow- gt tm hour         min     if  ptmNow- gt tm min  lt  10          currentDateTime  lt  lt   0   lt  lt  ptmNow- gt tm min      else         currentDateTime  lt  lt  ptmNow- gt tm min         sec     if  ptmNow- gt tm sec  lt  10          currentDateTime  lt  lt   0   lt  lt  ptmNow- gt tm sec      else         currentDateTime  lt  lt  ptmNow- gt tm sec        return currentDateTime str        Output  UTC  EST    20161123 000454 20161122 190454

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You can use the following code to get the current system date and time in C           include  lt iostream gt       include  lt time h gt    It may be  include  lt ctime gt  or any other header file depending upon                         compiler or IDE you re using      using namespace std       int main               current date time based on current system        time t now   time 0              convert now to string form        string dt   ctime  amp now           cout  lt  lt   The local date and time is     lt  lt  dt  lt  lt  endl      return 0          PS  Visit this site for more information

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C   shares its date time functions with C  The tm structure is probably the easiest for a C   programmer to work with - the following prints today s date    include  lt ctime gt   include  lt iostream gt   int main         std  time t t   std  time 0        get time now     std  tm  now   std  localtime  amp t       std  cout  lt  lt   now- gt tm year   1900   lt  lt   -             lt  lt   now- gt tm mon   1   lt  lt   -            lt  lt   now- gt tm mday           lt  lt    n

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Yes and you can do so with formatting rules specified by the currently-imbued locale    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt iterator gt   include  lt string gt   class timefmt   public      timefmt std  string fmt            format fmt           friend std  ostream amp  operator  lt  lt  std  ostream  amp   timefmt const  amp     private      std  string format      std  ostream amp  operator  lt  lt  std  ostream amp  os  timefmt const amp  mt        std  ostream  sentry s os        if  s                std  time t t   std  time 0           std  tm const  tm   std  localtime  amp t           std  ostreambuf iterator lt char gt  out os            std  use facet lt std  time put lt char gt  gt  os getloc                 put out  os  os fill                     tm   amp mt format 0    amp mt format 0    mt format size                os width 0        return os     int main         std  cout  lt  lt  timefmt   c           Output  Fri Sep  6 20 33 31 2013

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There s always the   TIMESTAMP   preprocessor macro    include  lt iostream gt   using namespace std  void printBuildDateTime          cout  lt  lt    TIMESTAMP    lt  lt  endl     int main         printBuildDateTime        example  Sun Apr 13 11 28 08 2014

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This works with G   I m not sure if this helps you   Program output    The current time is 11 43 41 am The current date is 6-18-2015 June Wednesday  Day of month is 17 and the Month of year is 6  also the day of year is 167  amp  our Weekday is 3  The current year is 2015    Code     include  lt ctime gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt time h gt   using namespace std   const std  string currentTime     time t now   time 0   struct tm tstruct  char buf 80   tstruct    localtime  amp now   strftime buf  sizeof buf     H  M  S  P    amp tstruct   return buf     const std  string currentDate     time t now   time 0   struct tm tstruct  char buf 80   tstruct    localtime  amp now   strftime buf  sizeof buf     B  A     amp tstruct   return buf     int main         cout  lt  lt    033 2J 033 1 1H    std cout  lt  lt   The current time is    lt  lt  currentTime    lt  lt  std  endl      time t t   time 0        get time now     struct tm   now   localtime   amp  t        cout  lt  lt   The current date is    lt  lt  now- gt tm mon   1  lt  lt   -             lt  lt   now- gt tm mday    1   lt  lt   -            lt  lt    now- gt tm year   1900             lt  lt       lt  lt  currentDate    lt  lt  endl     cout  lt  lt   Day of month is    lt  lt   now- gt tm mday          lt  lt    and the Month of year is    lt  lt   now- gt tm mon  1  lt  lt       lt  lt  endl      cout  lt  lt   also the day of year is    lt  lt   now- gt tm yday             lt  lt     amp  our Weekday is    lt  lt   now- gt tm wday   lt  lt       lt  lt  endl      cout  lt  lt   The current year is    lt  lt   now- gt tm year  1900  lt  lt                 lt  lt  endl   return 0

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the C   standard library does not provide a proper date type  C   inherits the structs and functions for date and time manipulation from C  along with a couple of date time input and output functions that take into account localization      Current date time based on current system time t now   time 0       Convert now to tm struct for local timezone tm  localtm   localtime  amp now   cout  lt  lt   The local date and time is     lt  lt  asctime localtm   lt  lt  endl      Convert now to tm struct for UTC tm  gmtm   gmtime  amp now   if  gmtm    NULL    cout  lt  lt   The UTC date and time is     lt  lt  asctime gmtm   lt  lt  endl    else   cerr  lt  lt   Failed to get the UTC date and time   lt  lt  endl  return EXIT FAILURE

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You can try the following cross-platform code to get current date time    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt time h gt      Get current date time  format is YYYY-MM-DD HH mm ss const std  string currentDateTime         time t     now   time 0       struct tm  tstruct      char       buf 80       tstruct    localtime  amp now          Visit http   en cppreference com w cpp chrono c strftime        for more information about date time format     strftime buf  sizeof buf     Y- m- d  X    amp tstruct        return buf     int main         std  cout  lt  lt   currentDateTime      lt  lt  currentDateTime    lt  lt  std  endl      getchar        wait for keyboard input     Output   currentDateTime   2012-05-06 21 47 59   Please visit here for more information about date time format

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localtime s   version    include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt time h gt   int main        time t current time    struct tm  local time     time    amp current time      localtime s  amp local time   amp current time      int Year     local time tm year   1900    int Month    local time tm mon   1    int Day      local time tm mday     int Hour     local time tm hour    int Min      local time tm min    int Sec      local time tm sec     return 0

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http   www cplusplus com reference ctime strftime   This built-in seems to offer a reasonable set of options

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For fellow googlers   There is also Boost  date time     include  lt boost date time posix time posix time hpp gt   boost  posix time  ptime date time   boost  posix time  microsec clock  universal time

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New answer for an old question   The question does not specify in what timezone   There are two reasonable possibilities    In UTC  In the computer s local timezone    For 1  you can use this date library and the following program    include  date h   include  lt iostream gt   int main         using namespace date      using namespace std  chrono      std  cout  lt  lt  system clock  now    lt  lt    n       Which just output for me   2015-08-18 22 08 18 944211   The date library essentially just adds a streaming operator for std  chrono  system clock  time point   It also adds a lot of other nice functionality  but that is not used in this simple program   If you prefer 2  the local time   there is a timezone library that builds on top of the date library   Both of these libraries are open source and cross platform  assuming the compiler supports C  11 or C  14    include  tz h   include  lt iostream gt   int main         using namespace date      using namespace std  chrono      auto local   make zoned current zone    system clock  now         std  cout  lt  lt  local  lt  lt    n       Which for me just output   2015-08-18 18 08 18 944211 EDT   The result type from make zoned is a date  zoned time which is a pairing of a date  time zone and a std  chrono  system clock  time point   This pair represents a local time  but can also represent UTC  depending on how you query it   With the above output  you can see that my computer is currently in a timezone with a UTC offset of -4h  and an abbreviation of EDT   If some other timezone is desired  that can also be accomplished   For example to find the current time in Sydney   Australia just change the construction of the variable local to   auto local   make zoned  Australia Sydney   system clock  now       And the output changes to   2015-08-19 08 08 18 944211 AEST   Update for C  20  This library is now largely adopted for C  20   The namespace date is gone and everything is in namespace std  chrono now   And use zoned time in place of make time   Drop the headers  date h  and  tz h  and just use  lt chrono gt    As I write this  partial implementations are just beginning to emerge on some platforms

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You could use boost    include  lt boost date time gregorian gregorian hpp gt   include  lt iostream gt  using namespace boost  gregorian   int main         date d   day clock  universal day        std  cout  lt  lt  d day    lt  lt       lt  lt  d month    lt  lt       lt  lt  d year

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This compiled for me on Linux  RHEL  and Windows  x64  targeting g   and OpenMP    include  lt ctime gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt locale gt                                                                                           Reports a time-stamped update to the console  format is           Name  Update  Year-Month-Day of Month Hour Minute Second                                                                                             string  strName     name of the update object      string  strUpdate   update descripton                                                                                                void ReportTimeStamp string strName  string strUpdate        try                ifdef  WIN64                 Current time             const time t tStart   time 0                   Current time structure             struct tm tmStart               localtime s  amp tmStart   amp tStart                    Report             cout  lt  lt  strName  lt  lt        lt  lt  strUpdate  lt  lt        lt  lt   1900   tmStart tm year   lt  lt   -   lt  lt  tmStart tm mon  lt  lt   -   lt  lt  tmStart tm mday  lt  lt       lt  lt  tmStart tm hour  lt  lt       lt  lt  tmStart tm min  lt  lt       lt  lt  tmStart tm sec  lt  lt    n n            else                 Current time             const time t tStart   time 0                   Current time structure             struct tm  tmStart               tmStart   localtime  amp tStart                    Report             cout  lt  lt  strName  lt  lt        lt  lt  strUpdate  lt  lt        lt  lt   1900   tmStart- gt tm year   lt  lt   -   lt  lt  tmStart- gt tm mon  lt  lt   -   lt  lt  tmStart- gt tm mday  lt  lt       lt  lt  tmStart- gt tm hour  lt  lt       lt  lt  tmStart- gt tm min  lt  lt       lt  lt  tmStart- gt tm sec  lt  lt    n n            endif            catch  exception ex                cout  lt  lt   ERROR  ReportTimeStamp  Exception Code      lt  lt  ex what    lt  lt    n              return

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auto time   std  time nullptr   std  cout  lt  lt  std  put time std  localtime  amp time     F  T z       ISO 8601 format    Get the current time either using std  time   or std  chrono  system clock  now    or another clock type    std  put time    C  11  and strftime    C  offer a lot of formatters to output those times    include  lt iomanip gt   include  lt iostream gt   int main         auto time   std  time nullptr       std  cout            ISO 8601   Y- m- d  H  M  S  e g  2017-07-31 00 42 00 0200           lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     F  T z    lt  lt    n              m  d  y  e g  07 31 17          lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     D           The sequence of the formatters matters   std  cout  lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     c  A  Z    lt  lt  std  endl     Mon Jul 31 00 00 42 2017 Monday GMT std  cout  lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     Z  c  A    lt  lt  std  endl     GMT Mon Jul 31 00 00 42 2017 Monday   The formatters of strftime   are similar   char output 100   if  std  strftime output  sizeof output     F   std  gmtime  amp time          std  cout  lt  lt  output  lt  lt    n       Y- m- d  e g  2017-07-31     Often  the capital formatter means  full version  and lowercase means abbreviation  e g  Y  2017  y  17      Locale settings alter the output    include  lt iomanip gt   include  lt iostream gt  int main         auto time   std  time nullptr       std  cout  lt  lt   undef     lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     c    lt  lt    n       std  cout imbue std  locale  en US utf8         std  cout  lt  lt   en US     lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     c    lt  lt    n       std  cout imbue std  locale  en GB utf8         std  cout  lt  lt   en GB     lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     c    lt  lt    n       std  cout imbue std  locale  de DE utf8         std  cout  lt  lt   de DE     lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     c    lt  lt    n       std  cout imbue std  locale  ja JP utf8         std  cout  lt  lt   ja JP     lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     c    lt  lt    n       std  cout imbue std  locale  ru RU utf8         std  cout  lt  lt   ru RU     lt  lt  std  put time std  gmtime  amp time     c                Possible output  Coliru  Compiler Explorer    undef  Tue Aug  1 08 29 30 2017 en US  Tue 01 Aug 2017 08 29 30 AM GMT en GB  Tue 01 Aug 2017 08 29 30 GMT de DE  Di 01 Aug 2017 08 29 30 GMT ja JP  2017 08 01  08 29 30  ru RU     01     2017 08 29 30     I ve used std  gmtime   for conversion to UTC  std  localtime   is provided to convert to local time   Heed that asctime   ctime   which were mentioned in other answers are marked as deprecated now and strftime   should be preferred

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std  ctime Why was ctime only mentioned in the comments so far   include  lt ctime gt   include  lt iostream gt    int main         std  time t result   std  time nullptr       std  cout  lt  lt  std  ctime  amp result      Output Tue Dec 27 17 21 29 2011

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The ffead-cpp provides multiple utility classes for various tasks  one such class is the Date class which provides a lot of features right from Date operations to date arithmetic  there s also a Timer class provided for timing operations  You can have a look at the same

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include  lt iostream gt   include  lt chrono gt   include  lt string gt   pragma warning disable  4996     Ver  C   17     IDE  Visual Studio int main         using namespace std       using namespace chrono      time point tp   system clock  now        time t tt   system clock  to time t tp       cout  lt  lt   Current time     lt  lt  ctime  amp tt   lt  lt  endl      return 0

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