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

You can use the following code to get the current system date and time in C++ :

    #include <iostream>
    #include <time.h> //It may be #include <ctime> or any other header file depending upon
                     // compiler or IDE you're using 
    using namespace std;

    int main() {
       // current date/time based on current system
       time_t now = time(0);

       // convert now to string form
       string dt = ctime(&now);

       cout << "The local date and time is: " << dt << endl;
    return 0;
    }

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Answer 2

#include <iostream>
#include <chrono>
#include <string>
#pragma warning(disable: 4996)
// Ver: C++ 17 
// IDE: Visual Studio
int main() {
    using namespace std; 
    using namespace chrono;
    time_point tp = system_clock::now();
    time_t tt = system_clock::to_time_t(tp);
    cout << "Current time: " << ctime(&tt) << endl;
    return 0;
}

Answer 3

This compiled for me on Linux (RHEL) and Windows (x64) targeting g++ and OpenMP:

#include <ctime>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <locale>

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
//  Reports a time-stamped update to the console; format is:
//       Name: Update: Year-Month-Day_of_Month Hour:Minute:Second
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
//  [string] strName  :  name of the update object
//  [string] strUpdate:  update descripton
//          
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

void ReportTimeStamp(string strName, string strUpdate)
{
    try
    {
        #ifdef _WIN64
            //  Current time
            const time_t tStart = time(0);
            //  Current time structure
            struct tm tmStart;

            localtime_s(&tmStart, &tStart);

            //  Report
            cout << strName << ": " << strUpdate << ": " << (1900 + tmStart.tm_year) << "-" << tmStart.tm_mon << "-" << tmStart.tm_mday << " " << tmStart.tm_hour << ":" << tmStart.tm_min << ":" << tmStart.tm_sec << "\n\n";
        #else
            //  Current time
            const time_t tStart = time(0);
            //  Current time structure
            struct tm* tmStart;

            tmStart = localtime(&tStart);

            //  Report
            cout << strName << ": " << strUpdate << ": " << (1900 + tmStart->tm_year) << "-" << tmStart->tm_mon << "-" << tmStart->tm_mday << " " << tmStart->tm_hour << ":" << tmStart->tm_min << ":" << tmStart->tm_sec << "\n\n";
        #endif

    }
    catch (exception ex)
    {
        cout << "ERROR [ReportTimeStamp] Exception Code:  " << ex.what() << "\n";
    }

    return;
}

Answer 4

you could use C++ 11 time class:

    #include <iostream>
    #include <iomanip>
    using namespace std;

    int main() {

       time_t now = chrono::system_clock::to_time_t(chrono::system_clock::now());
       cout << put_time(localtime(&now), "%F %T") <<  endl;
      return 0;
     }

out put:

2017-08-25 12:30:08

Answer 5

You can also directly use ctime():

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main ()
{
  time_t rawtime;
  struct tm * timeinfo;

  time ( &rawtime );
  printf ( "Current local time and date: %s", ctime (&rawtime) );

  return 0;
} 

Answer 6

auto time = std::time(nullptr);
std::cout << std::put_time(std::localtime(&time), "%F %T%z"); // ISO 8601 format.

Get the current time either using std::time() or std::chrono::system_clock::now() (or another clock type).

std::put_time() (C++11) and strftime() (C) offer a lot of formatters to output those times.

#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    auto time = std::time(nullptr);
    std::cout
        // ISO 8601: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S, e.g. 2017-07-31 00:42:00+0200.
        << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%F %T%z") << '\n'
        // %m/%d/%y, e.g. 07/31/17
        << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%D"); 
}

---

The sequence of the formatters matters:

std::cout << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%c %A %Z") << std::endl;
// Mon Jul 31 00:00:42 2017 Monday GMT
std::cout << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%Z %c %A") << std::endl;
// GMT Mon Jul 31 00:00:42 2017 Monday

The formatters of strftime() are similar:

char output[100];
if (std::strftime(output, sizeof(output), "%F", std::gmtime(&time))) {
    std::cout << output << '\n'; // %Y-%m-%d, e.g. 2017-07-31
}

Often, the capital formatter means "full version" and lowercase means abbreviation (e.g. Y: 2017, y: 17).

---

Locale settings alter the output:

#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
int main() {
    auto time = std::time(nullptr);
    std::cout << "undef: " << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%c") << '\n';
    std::cout.imbue(std::locale("en_US.utf8"));
    std::cout << "en_US: " << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%c") << '\n';
    std::cout.imbue(std::locale("en_GB.utf8"));
    std::cout << "en_GB: " << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%c") << '\n';
    std::cout.imbue(std::locale("de_DE.utf8"));
    std::cout << "de_DE: " << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%c") << '\n';
    std::cout.imbue(std::locale("ja_JP.utf8"));
    std::cout << "ja_JP: " << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%c") << '\n';
    std::cout.imbue(std::locale("ru_RU.utf8"));
    std::cout << "ru_RU: " << std::put_time(std::gmtime(&time), "%c");        
}

Possible output (Coliru, Compiler Explorer):

undef: Tue Aug  1 08:29:30 2017
en_US: Tue 01 Aug 2017 08:29:30 AM GMT
en_GB: Tue 01 Aug 2017 08:29:30 GMT
de_DE: Di 01 Aug 2017 08:29:30 GMT
ja_JP: 2017年08月01日 08時29分30秒
ru_RU: Вт 01 авг 2017 08:29:30

---

I've used std::gmtime() for conversion to UTC. std::localtime() is provided to convert to local time.

Heed that asctime()/ctime() which were mentioned in other answers are marked as deprecated now and strftime() should be preferred.