{{keywords>wiki library source code example reference}}
===== ctime =====
   
<code c>
#include <time.h>
char *ctime(const time_t *timer);
</code>


=== Description ===
The ctime() function shall convert the time pointed to by clock, representing time in seconds since the Epoch,
to local time in the form of a string. It shall be equivalent to

<code c>
   asctime(localtime(clock))
</code>

1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC).
       
=== return value ===
    
The ctime() function shall return the pointer returned by asctime() with that broken-down time as an argument.\\
Upon successful completion, ctime_r() shall return a pointer to the string pointed to by buf. When an error is encountered, a null pointer shall be returned.

===== ctime c example =====
<code c>
/* 
 * ctime example code
 * http://code-reference.com/c/time.h/ctime 
 */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main(void)
{
    time_t time_format;

    time(&time_format);
    printf("%s\n", ctime(&time_format));

    return 0;
}
</code>

=== output for this example ===
    
    Mon Apr 23 18:24:18 2012


==== see also ====
[[c:time.h:asctime|asctime()]] [[c:time.h:clock|clock()]] [[c:time.h:difftime|difftime()]] [[c:time.h:gmtime|gmtime()]] [[c:time.h:localtime|localtime()]] [[c:time.h:mktime|mktime()]] [[c:time.h:strftime|strftime()]] [[c:time.h:strptime|strptime()]] [[c:time.h:time|time()]] [[c:utime.h:utime|utime()]]