std::time

C++

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Named requirements

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Diagnostics library

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

Utilities library

Type support (basic types, RTTI, type traits)
Dynamic memory management
Error handling
Program utilities
Variadic functions
Library feature-test macros
Date and time
Function objects
initializer_list (C++11)
bitset
hash (C++11)
integer_sequence (C++14)
Relational operators (deprecated)
rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>=
Comparisons (C++20)
strong_order weak_order partial_order strong_equal weak_equal	strong_ordering weak_ordering partial_ordering strong_equality weak_equality	is_eqis_neqis_ltis_lteqis_gtis_gteq
common_comparison_category
Common vocabulary types
pair tuple (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17)	optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17)
Swap, forward and move
swap
exchange (C++14)
forward (C++11)
move (C++11)
move_if_noexcept (C++11)
Elementary string conversions
to_chars (C++17)
from_chars (C++17)
chars_format (C++17)
Type operations
declval (C++11)
as_const (C++17)

Date and time utilities

duration (C++11) time_point (C++11) time_of_day (C++20)	clock_time_conversion (C++20) clock_cast (C++20)
Clocks
system_clock (C++11) steady_clock (C++11) high_resolution_clock (C++11) is_clock (C++20)	utc_clock (C++20) tai_clock (C++20) gps_clock (C++20) file_clock (C++20) local_t (C++20)
Calendars
day (C++20) month (C++20) year (C++20) weekday (C++20) operator/ (C++20) year_month_day (C++20) year_month_day_last (C++20) year_month_weekday (C++20) year_month_weekday_last (C++20)	weekday_indexed (C++20) weekday_last (C++20) month_day (C++20) month_day_last (C++20) month_weekday (C++20) month_weekday_last (C++20) year_month (C++20)
Time zones
tzdb (C++20) tzdb_list (C++20) get_tzdbget_tzdb_listreload_tzdbremote_version (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)	time_zone (C++20) locate_zone (C++20) current_zone (C++20) zoned_time (C++20) link (C++20) leap (C++20)
C-style date and time

C-style date and time utilities

Functions

Time manipulation

difftime

time

clock

timespec_get (C++17)

Format conversions

asctime

ctime

strftime

wcsftime

gmtime

localtime

mktime

Constants

CLOCKS_PER_SEC

Types

tm

time_t

clock_t

timespec (C++17)

Defined in header <ctime>
std::time_t time( std::time_t* arg );

Returns the current calendar time encoded as a std::time_t object, and also stores it in the object pointed to by arg, unless arg is a null pointer.

Parameters

arg

-

pointer to a std::time_t object to store the time, or a null pointer

Return value

Current calendar time encoded as std::time_t object on success, (std::time_t)(-1) on error. If arg is not null, the return value is also stored in the object pointed to by arg.

Notes

The encoding of calendar time in std::time_t is unspecified, but most systems conform to POSIX specification and return a value of integral type holding the number of seconds since the Epoch. Implementations in which std::time_t is a 32-bit signed integer (many historical implementations) fail in the year 2038.

Example

Run this code

#include <ctime>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::time_t result = std::time(nullptr);
    std::cout << std::asctime(std::localtime(&result))
              << result << " seconds since the Epoch\n";
}

Output:

Wed Sep 21 10:27:52 2011
1316615272 seconds since the Epoch

See also

localtime	converts time since epoch to calendar time expressed as local time (function)
gmtime	converts time since epoch to calendar time expressed as Universal Coordinated Time (function)
system_clock (C++11)	wall clock time from the system-wide realtime clock (class)