C Exercises: Print the current date and time

Last update on March 20 2025 12:31:55 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

1. Current DateTime Print

Write a program in C to print the current date and time.

Sample Solution:

C Code:

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

int main(void) {
    time_t cur_time; // Variable to hold the current time
    char* cur_t_string; // String to store the formatted time

    cur_time = time(NULL); // Get the current time
    if (cur_time == ((time_t)-1)) {
        // Check for failure in getting the current time
        (void) fprintf(stderr, "Failure to get the current date and time.\n");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    cur_t_string = ctime(&cur_time); // Convert the current time to local time format
    if (cur_t_string == NULL) {
        // Check for failure in converting the current time to string format
        (void) fprintf(stderr, "Failure to convert the current date and time.\n");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    // Print the current time
    (void) printf("\n The Current time is : %s \n", cur_t_string);

    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

Output:

 The Current date and time is : Thu Aug 03 13:38:58 2017

N.B.: The result may vary for your current system date and time.

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a C program to display the current date and time in the format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" using localtime().
• Write a C program to print the current date and time in both local time and UTC simultaneously.
• Write a C program that continuously updates and prints the current date and time every second (like a live clock).
• Write a C program to format and print the current date and time with the day of the week, month name, and year.

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