What is time() in C?

The time function is a C library function that returns the time since the Epoch (00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970) in seconds.

To use the time function, the time.h header file needs to be included in the program, as shown below:

#include <time.h>

Syntax

An object of thetime_t type is used for the function declaration as shown below:

time_t time(time_t *second)

Parameters

The function takes a single parameter (second) of the pointer type used to set the time_t object.

Return Value

The current time is returned in the time_t object type.

Example

The code below shows the use of the time function in C:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
int main(){
  //Declare the time_t object 
  time_t seconds;
  seconds = time(NULL);
  
  //Display the time in seconds 
  printf ("Seconds passed since Jan 1, 1970: %ld", seconds);
  return 0;
}

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