How to get current time and date in C++?

Question

Is there a cross-platform way to get the current date and time in C++?

Answer 1

the C++ standard library does not provide a proper date type. C++ inherits the structs and functions for date and time manipulation from C, along with a couple of date/time input and output functions that take into account localization.

// Current date/time based on current system
time_t now = time(0);

// Convert now to tm struct for local timezone
tm* localtm = localtime(&now);
cout << "The local date and time is: " << asctime(localtm) << endl;

// Convert now to tm struct for UTC
tm* gmtm = gmtime(&now);
if (gmtm != NULL) {
cout << "The UTC date and time is: " << asctime(gmtm) << endl;
}
else {
cerr << "Failed to get the UTC date and time" << endl;
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}