What is the time() function in C?
The time() function is included in the time.h header file in C. The return value is the time (in seconds) since 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970. The return value is stored in the variable second if it is not NULL.
Syntax
time_t time( time_t *second )
Parameters
second: Pointer to thetime_tobject where the time will be stored.
Return value
The time() function returns the current calendar time as type time_t object.
Code example
The code below demonstrates the time() function using the time_t object defined as seconds to store the time. The code outputs the number of seconds, hours, and days since January 1, 1970.
#include <stdio.h>#include <time.h>int main (){time_t seconds;time(&seconds);printf("Seconds since January 1, 1970 = %ld\n", seconds);printf("Hours since January 1, 1970 = %ld\n", seconds/3600);printf("Days since January 1, 1970 = %ld\n", seconds/(3600*24));return(0);}