The ****```time_t``` function**** returns the time since 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970 (Unix timestamp) in seconds. The ```time.h``` header file needs to be included to use this function, as shown below:
```C
#include <time.h>
```

# Prototype
```C
time_t time( time_t *second )
```
If the variable ```second``` is not a NULL pointer, the return value of this function is also stored in the ```second``` variable.

# Parameters
The ```time_t``` function takes a single argument. This is a pointer to an object of type `time_t`. The value of seconds is stored in this object. 

# Return value
The return value for this function is the current calendar time as an object `time_t` type. 

# Example
The following code shows the use of the ```time_t``` function:

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

int main () {
   time_t second;
   second = time(NULL);
   printf("Seconds passed since January 1, 1970 = %ld\n", second);
  
   return(0);
}

What is time_t in C?

Prototype

Parameters

Return value

Example