This section describes facilities for keeping track of dates and times according to the Gregorian calendar.
There are three representations for date and time information:
Calendar time (the time_t data type) is a compact representation, typically giving the number of seconds elapsed since some implementation-specific base time.
There is also a high-resolution time representation (the struct timeval data type) that includes fractions of a second. Use this time representation instead of ordinary calendar time when you need greater precision.
Local time or broken-down time (the struct tm data type) represents the date and time as a set of components specifying the year, month, and so on, for a specific time zone. This time representation is usually used in conjunction with formatting date and time values.
| Simple Calendar Time | Facilities for manipulating calendar time. |
| High-Resolution Calendar | A time representation with greater precision. |
| Broken-down Time | Facilities for manipulating local time. |
| Formatting Date and Time | Converting times to strings. |
| TZ Variable | How users specify the time zone. |
| Time Zone Functions | Functions to examine or specify the time zone. |
| Time Functions Example | An example program showing use of some of the time functions. |