strftime(3C) Standard C Library Functions strftime(3C)NAME
strftime, cftime, ascftime - convert date and time to string
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
size_t strftime(char *restrict s, size_t maxsize, const char *restrict
format, const struct tm *restrict timeptr);
int cftime(char *s, char *format, const time_t *clock);
int ascftime(char *s, const char *format, const struct tm *timeptr);
DESCRIPTION
The strftime(), ascftime(), and cftime() functions place bytes into the
array pointed to by s as controlled by the string pointed to by format.
The format string consists of zero or more conversion specifications
and ordinary characters. A conversion specification consists of a '%'
(percent) character and one or two terminating conversion characters
that determine the conversion specification's behavior. All ordinary
characters (including the terminating null byte) are copied unchanged
into the array pointed to by s. If copying takes place between objects
that overlap, the behavior is undefined. For strftime (), no more than
maxsize bytes are placed into the array.
If format is (char *)0, then the locale's default format is used. For
strftime() the default format is the same as %c; for cftime() and ascf‐
time() the default format is the same as %C. cftime() and ascftime()
first try to use the value of the environment variable CFTIME, and if
that is undefined or empty, the default format is used.
Each conversion specification is replaced by appropriate characters as
described in the following list. The appropriate characters are deter‐
mined by the LC_TIME category of the program's locale and by the values
contained in the structure pointed to by timeptr for strftime() and
ascftime(), and by the time represented by clock for cftime().
%% Same as %.
%a Locale's abbreviated weekday name.
%A Locale's full weekday name.
%b Locale's abbreviated month name.
%B Locale's full month name.
Default
%c Locale's appropriate date and time represented as:
%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y
This is the defaut behavior as well as standard-conforming
behavior for standards first supported by releases prior to
Solaris 2.4. See standards(5).
Standard conforming
%c Locale's appropriate date and time represented as:
%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y
This is standard-conforming behavior for standards first sup‐
ported by Solaris 2.4 through Solaris 10.
Default
%C Locale's date and time representation as produced by date(1).
This is the defaut behavior as well as standard-conforming
behavior for standards first supported by releases prior to
Solaris 2.4.
Standard conforming
%C Century number (the year divided by 100 and truncated to an
integer as a decimal number [01,99]).
This is standard-conforming behavior for standards first sup‐
ported by Solaris 2.4 through Solaris 10.
%d Day of month [01,31].
%D Date as %m/%d/%y.
%e Day of month [1,31]; single digits are preceded by a space.
%F Equivalent to %Y-%m-%d (the ISO 8601:2000 standard date for‐
mat).
%g Week-based year within century [00,99].
%G Week-based year, including the century [0000,9999].
%h Locale's abbreviated month name.
%H Hour (24-hour clock) [00,23].
%I Hour (12-hour clock) [01,12].
%j Day number of year [001,366].
%k Hour (24-hour clock) [0,23]; single digits are preceded by a
space.
%l Hour (12-hour clock) [1,12]; single digits are preceded by a
space.
%m Month number [01,12].
%M Minute [00,59].
%n Insert a NEWLINE.
%p Locale's equivalent of either a.m. or p.m.
%r Appropriate time representation in 12-hour clock format with
%p.
%R Time as %H:%M.
%S Seconds [00,60]; the range of values is [00,60] rather than
[00,59] to allow for the occasional leap second.
%t Insert a TAB.
%T Time as %H:%M:%S.
%u Weekday as a decimal number [1,7], with 1 representing Monday.
See NOTES below.
%U Week number of year as a decimal number [00,53], with Sunday
as the first day of week 1.
%V The ISO 8601 week number as a decimal number [01,53]. In the
ISO 8601 week-based system, weeks begin on a Monday and week 1
of the year is the week that includes both January 4th and the
first Thursday of the year. If the first Monday of January is
the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, the preceding days are part of the last
week of the preceding year. See NOTES below.
%w Weekday as a decimal number [0,6], with 0 representing Sunday.
%W Week number of year as a decimal number [00,53], with Monday
as the first day of week 1.
%x Locale's appropriate date representation.
%X Locale's appropriate time representation.
%y Year within century [00,99].
%Y Year, including the century (for example 1993).
%z Replaced by offset from UTC in ISO 8601:2000 standard format
(+hhmm or -hhmm), or by no characters if no timezone is deter‐
minable. For example, "-0430" means 4 hours 30 minutes behind
UTC (west of Greenwich). If tm_isdst is zero, the standard
time offset is used. If tm_isdst is greater than zero, the
daylight savings time offset if used. If tm_isdst is negative,
no characters are returned.
%Z Time zone name or abbreviation, or no bytes if no time zone
information exists.
If a conversion specification does not correspond to any of the above
or to any of the modified conversion specifications listed below, the
behavior is undefined and 0 is returned.
The difference between %U and %W (and also between modified conversion
specifications %OU and %OW) lies in which day is counted as the first
of the week. Week number 1 is the first week in January starting with a
Sunday for %U or a Monday for %W. Week number 0 contains those days
before the first Sunday or Monday in January for %U and %W, respec‐
tively.
Modified Conversion Specifications
Some conversion specifications can be modified by the E and O modifiers
to indicate that an alternate format or specification should be used
rather than the one normally used by the unmodified conversion specifi‐
cation. If the alternate format or specification does not exist in the
current locale, the behavior will be as if the unmodified specification
were used.
%Ec Locale's alternate appropriate date and time representation.
%EC Name of the base year (period) in the locale's alternate rep‐
resentation.
%Eg Offset from %EC of the week-based year in the locale's alter‐
native representation.
%EG Full alternative representation of the week-based year.
%Ex Locale's alternate date representation.
%EX Locale's alternate time representation.
%Ey Offset from %EC (year only) in the locale's alternate repre‐
sentation.
%EY Full alternate year representation.
%Od Day of the month using the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
%Oe Same as %Od.
%Og Week-based year (offset from %C) in the locale's alternate
representation and using the locale's alternate numeric sym‐
bols.
%OH Hour (24-hour clock) using the locale's alternate numeric sym‐
bols.
%OI Hour (12-hour clock) using the locale's alternate numeric sym‐
bols.
%Om Month using the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
%OM Minutes using the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
%OS Seconds using the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
%Ou Weekday as a number in the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
%OU Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week)
using the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
%Ow Number of the weekday (Sunday=0) using the locale's alternate
numeric symbols.
%OW Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week)
using the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
%Oy Year (offset from %C) in the locale's alternate representation
and using the locale's alternate numeric symbols.
Selecting the Output Language
By default, the output of strftime(), cftime(), and ascftime() appear
in U.S. English. The user can request that the output of strftime(),
cftime(), or ascftime() be in a specific language by setting the
LC_TIME category using setlocale().
Time Zone
Local time zone information is used as though tzset(3C) were called.
RETURN VALUES
The strftime(), cftime(), and ascftime() functions return the number of
characters placed into the array pointed to by s, not including the
terminating null character. If the total number of resulting characters
including the terminating null character is more than maxsize, strf‐
time() returns 0 and the contents of the array are indeterminate.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: An example of the strftime() function.
The following example illustrates the use of strftime() for the POSIX
locale. It shows what the string in str would look like if the struc‐
ture pointed to by tmptr contains the values corresponding to Thursday,
August 28, 1986 at 12:44:36.
strftime (str, strsize, "%A %b %d %j", tmptr)
This results in str containing "Thursday Aug 28 240".
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
│MT-Level │MT-Safe │
│CSI │Enabled │
│Interface Stability │strftime() is Standard. │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOdate(1), ctime(3C), mktime(3C), setlocale(3C), strptime(3C), tzset(3C),
TIMEZONE(4), zoneinfo(4), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)NOTES
The conversion specification for %V was changed in the Solaris 7
release. This change was based on the public review draft of the ISO
C9x standard at that time. Previously, the specification stated that if
the week containing 1 January had fewer than four days in the new year,
it became week 53 of the previous year. The ISO C9x standard committee
subsequently recognized that that specification had been incorrect.
The conversion specifications for %g, %G, %Eg, %EG, and %Og were added
in the Solaris 7 release. This change was based on the public review
draft of the ISO C9x standard at that time. These specifications are
evolving. If the ISO C9x standard is finalized with a different con‐
clusion, these specifications will change to conform to the ISO C9x
standard decision.
The conversion specification for %u was changed in the Solaris 8
release. This change was based on the XPG4 specification.
If using the %Z specifier and zoneinfo timezones and if the input date
is outside the range 20:45:52 UTC, December 13, 1901 to 03:14:07 UTC,
January 19, 2038, the timezone name may not be correct.
SunOS 5.10 5 Sep 2006 strftime(3C)
