localtime, localtime_s

Defined in header `<time.h>`
struct tm localtime( const time_t time );	(1)
struct tm localtime_s(const time_t restrict time, struct tm *restrict result);	(2)	(since C11)

1) Converts given time since epoch (a time_t value pointed to by time) into calendar time, expressed in local time, in the struct tm format. The result is stored in static storage and a pointer to that static storage is returned.

2) Same as (1), except that the function uses user-provided storage result for the result and that the following errors are detected at runtime and call the currently installed constraint handler function:

time or result is a null pointer

As with all bounds-checked functions, localtime_s is only guaranteed to be available if __STDC_LIB_EXT1__ is defined by the implementation and if the user defines __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ to the integer constant 1 before including time.h.

Parameters

time	-	pointer to a `time_t` object to convert
result	-	pointer to a struct tm object to store the result

Return value

1) pointer to a static internal tm object on success, or null pointer otherwise. The structure may be shared between gmtime, localtime, and ctime and may be overwritten on each invocation.

2) copy of the result pointer, or null pointer on error (which may be a runtime constraint violation or a failure to convert the specified time to local calendar time)

Notes

This function localtime may not be thread-safe.

POSIX requires that this function sets errno to EOVERFLOW if it fails because the argument is too large.

POSIX defines a thread-safe alternative localtime_r, which is similar to the C11 function localtime_s, except that it does not check the validity of its input parameters.

Example

Run this code

#define __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ 1
#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    time_t t = time(NULL);
    printf("UTC:   %s", asctime(gmtime(&t)));
    printf("local: %s", asctime(localtime(&t)));
 
#ifdef __STDC_LIB_EXT1__
    struct tm buf;
    char str[26];
    asctime_s(str,sizeof str,gmtime_s(&t, &buf));
    printf("UTC:   %s", str);
    asctime_s(str,sizeof str,localtime_s(&t, &buf)));
    printf("local: %s", str);
#endif
}

Output:

UTC:   Tue Feb 17 18:12:09 2015
local: Tue Feb 17 13:12:09 2015
UTC:   Tue Feb 17 18:12:09 2015
local: Tue Feb 17 13:12:09 2015

References

C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

7.27.3.4 The localtime function (p: 394)

K.3.8.2.4 The localtime_s function (p: 627)

C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

7.23.3.4 The localtime function (p: 343)

C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

4.12.3.4 The localtime function

Language
headers
Type support
Dynamic memory management
Error handling
Program utilities
Variadic function support
Date and time utilities
Strings library
Algorithms
Numerics
Input/output support
Localization support
Thread support (C11)
Atomic operations (C11)
Technical Specifications

Functions
Time manipulation
difftime
time
clock
timespec_get (C11)
Format conversions
asctimeasctime_s (C11)
ctimectime_s (C11)
strftime
wcsftime (C95)
gmtimegmtime_s (C11)
localtimelocaltime_s (C11)
mktime
Constants
CLOCKS_PER_SEC
Types
tm
time_t
clock_t
timespec (C11)