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C++ Date and Time

The <ctime> library allows us to work with dates and times.

To use it, you must import the <ctime> header file:

Example

#include <ctime> // Import the ctime library

Display Current Date and Time

The <ctime> library has a variety of functions to measure dates and times.

The time() function gives us a timestamp representing the current date and time. We can use
the ctime() function to show the date and time that a timestamp represents:

Example

Display the current date:

// Get the timestamp for the current date and time

time_t timestamp;

time(&timestamp);

// Display the date and time represented by the timestamp

cout << ctime(&timestamp);

Two ways to use the time() function

The time() function writes a timestamp to the memory location given by the parameter, but it
also returns the timestamp's value.

An alternative way to use the time() function is to pass in a NULL pointer and use the return
value instead.

time_t timestamp = time(NULL);

Data Types

There are two different data types used to store the date and
time: time_t for timestamps and struct tm for datetime structures.
Timestamps represent a moment in time as a single number, which makes it easier for the
computer to do calculations.

Datetime structures are structures that represent different components of the date and time as
members. This makes it easier for us to specify dates. Datetime structures have the following
members:

 tm_sec - The seconds within a minute

 tm_min - The minutes within an hour

 tm_hour - The hour within a day (from 0 to 23)

 tm_mday - The day of the month

 tm_mon - The month (from 0 to 11 starting with January)

 tm_year - The number of years since 1900

 tm_wday - The weekday (from 0 to 6 starting with Sunday)

 tm_yday - The day of the year (from 0 to 365 with 0 being January 1)

 tm_isdst - Positive when daylight saving time is in effect, zero when not in effect and
negative when unknown

Always keep in mind the way that date components are represented:

 Hours are represented in 24-hour format. 11pm would be represented as 23.

 The months go from 0 to 11. For example, December would be represented as 11 rather
than 12.

 Years are represented relative to the year 1900. The year 2024 would be represented
as 124 because 124 years have passed since 1900.

Creating Timestamps

The time() function can only create a timestamp for the current date, but we can create a
timestamp for any date by using the mktime() function.

The mktime() function converts a datetime structure into a timestamp.

Example

Create a timestamp using the mktime() function:

time_t timestamp;

datetime.tm_year = 2023 - 1900; // Number of years since 1900

datetime.tm_mon = 12 - 1; // Number of months since January

datetime.tm_mday = 17;

datetime.tm_hour = 12;

datetime.tm_min = 30;

datetime.tm_sec = 1;

// Daylight Savings must be specified

// -1 uses the computer's timezone setting

datetime.tm_isdst = -1;

timestamp = mktime(&datetime);

cout << ctime(&timestamp);

Note: The mktime() function needs these members to have a

Creating Datetime Structures

The mktime() function also fills in the tm_wday and tm_yday members of the datetime
structure with the correct values, which completes the structure and gives a valid datetime. It
can be used, for example, to find the weekday of a given date:

Example

Find the weekday of a specified date:

// Create the datetime structure and use mktime to fill in the missing members

struct tm datetime;

datetime.tm_year = 2023 - 1900; // Number of years since 1900

datetime.tm_mon = 12 - 1; // Number of months since January

datetime.tm_mday = 17;

datetime.tm_hour = 0; datetime.tm_min = 0; datetime.tm_sec = 0;

mktime(&datetime);

string weekdays[] = {"Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday",

cout << "The date is on a " << weekdays[datetime.tm_wday];

The localtime() and gmtime() functions can convert timestamps into datetime structures.

The localtime() function returns a pointer to a structure representing the time in the computer's
time zone.

The gmtime() function returns a pointer to a structure representing the time in the GMT time
zone.

These functions return a pointer to a datetime structure. If we want to make sure its value does
not change unexpectedly, we should make a copy of it by dereferencing the pointer.

Example

Get a datetime structure and output the current hour:

time_t timestamp = time(&timestamp);

struct tm datetime = *localtime(&timestamp);

cout << datetime.tm_hour;

Display Dates

So far we have been using the ctime() function to display the date contained in a timestamp. To
display dates from a datetime structure we can use the asctime() function.

Example

Display the date represented by a datetime structure:

time_t timestamp = time(NULL);

struct tm datetime = *localtime(&timestamp);

cout << asctime(&datetime);

Note: The asctime() function does not correct invalid dates. For example, if you set the day of
the month to 32 it will display 32. The mktime() function can correct these kinds of errors:
Example

Correct a date before displaying it:

// Create the datetime structure and use mktime to correct mistakes

struct tm datetime;

datetime.tm_year = 2022 - 1900; // Number of years since 1900

datetime.tm_mon = 0; // 0 is January

datetime.tm_mday = 32;

datetime.tm_hour = 0; datetime.tm_min = 0; datetime.tm_sec = 0;

datetime.tm_isdst = -1;

mktime(&datetime);

cout << asctime(&datetime);

The ctime() and asctime() functions allow us to display the date but they do not allow us to
choose how it is displayed.

To choose how a date is displayed we can use the strftime() function.

Example

Represent the current date in different ways:

time_t timestamp = time(NULL);

struct tm datetime = *localtime(&timestamp);

char output[50];

strftime(output, 50, "%B %e, %Y", &datetime);

cout << output << "\n";

strftime(output, 50, "%I:%M:%S %p", &datetime);

cout << output << "\n";

strftime(output, 50, "%m/%d/%y", &datetime);

cout << output << "\n";

strftime(output, 50, "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y", &datetime);

The strftime() function formats a date and writes it as a C-style string into a char array. It has
four parameters:

1. The first parameter points to the char array where the formatted date will be written.

2. The second parameter specifies the space available in the array.

3. The third parameter allows us to choose how the date is formatted using format
specifiers.

4. The last parameter is a pointer to the datetime structure which contains the date we
want to display.

The following table has some useful format specifiers. For a more complete list, look at
the strftime() reference page.

Format Description
Specifier

%a Short representation of the weekday

%b Short representation of the month name

%B Full representation of the month name

%d Day of the month with leading zero

%e Day of the month with leading spaces

%H 24-hour format of an hour

%I 12-hour format of an hour

%M Minutes within an hour

%p AM or PM
 %S Seconds within a minute

%y 2-digit year representation

%Y 4-digit year representation

Measuring Time

There are two different functions that can be used to measure differences in time.

The difftime() function measures the number of seconds that passed between two different
time stamps. This is useful when measuring time differences between dates.

Example

Measure the time difference between two timestamps

time_t now;

time_t nextyear;

struct tm datetime;

now = time(NULL);

datetime = *localtime(&now);

datetime.tm_year = datetime.tm_year + 1;

datetime.tm_mon = 0;

datetime.tm_mday = 1;

datetime.tm_hour = 0; datetime.tm_min = 0; datetime.tm_sec = 0;

datetime.tm_isdst = -1;

nextyear = mktime(&datetime);

int diff = difftime(nextyear, now);

cout << diff << " seconds until next year";

The clock() function is useful for measuring short intervals of time while the program is running.
It is more precise than the difftime() function.
Each call to the clock function returns a special kind of timestamp measured in clocks (a unit of
time that depends on how the library was implemented) which has a data type clock_t. To
measure a time difference, store a timestamp at two different moments in time and then
subtract them. The time difference is measured in clocks, but you can convert it into seconds by
dividing it by the CLOCKS_PER_SEC constant.

Example

Measure how long it takes for the program to run:

clock_t before = clock();

int k = 0;

for(int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {

k += i;

clock_t duration = clock() - before;

cout << "Duration: " << (float)duration / CLOCKS_PER_SEC << " seconds";

Note: Make sure to cast the value to a float or double type before dividing, otherwise it may
result in an integer division which would cause the decimal part to be cut off.