The localtime() function in C language is defined in the time.h header file and returns the local time of the computer being used to run a program.
Below is the definition of the localtime() function in the time.h header file:
tm* localtime(const time_t* t_ptr);
As seen in the code, the input parameter for the localtime() function is a pointer to variable time_t. This variable stores the current time of the machine and can be obtained using the time() function. The return type of the function localtime() is a pointer to struct tm.
Below is an example that shows how you can use the localtime() function to display the local time of a machine.
The time() function returns calendar time according to seconds that have passed since 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970 (Unix timestamp) and stores it in the t variable. The localtime() function then converts this calendar time to local time and displays it as such:
#include<stdio.h>#include<time.h>#include<iostream>using namespace std;int main() {time_t t; // to store local time obtained from time() functiontime(&t);struct tm* loc_time = localtime(&t); // converting calendar time to local timeprintf("time and date: %s\n",asctime(loc_time));return 0;}
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