A call to ctime(time) is a combination of asctime() and localtime() functions, as asctime(localtime(time)).
It is defined in <ctime> header file.
ctime() prototype
char* ctime(const time_t* time_ptr);
The ctime() function takes a pointer to time_t object as its parameter and returns a text representation of the form:
Www Mmm dd hh:mm:ss yyyy
ctime() Representation
| Type | Description | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Www | 3 letter days of a week | Mon to Sun |
| Mmm | 3 letter month names | Jan to Dec |
| dd | 2 digit days of month | 00 to 31 |
| hh | 2 digit hour | 00 to 23 |
| mm | 2 digit minute | 00 to 59 |
| ss | 2 digit second | 00 to 59 |
| yyyy | 4 digit year | 4 digit number |
ctime() Parameters
- time_ptr: pointer to a time_t object to be converted.
ctime() Return value
- Pointer to a null terminated string the points to the character representation of the date and time.
Example: How ctime() function works?
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
time_t curr_time;
curr_time = time(NULL);
char *tm = ctime(&curr_time);
cout << "Today is : " << tm;
return 0;
}
When you run the program, the output will be:
Today is : Fri Mar 24 18:48:04 2017