C Program To Output Current Date And Time

C programming language has several predefined macros. In this article we will demonstrate the usage of two important macros.

Before you begin with the example, learn C programming basics. If you know them already, skip and continue with the examples.

• C Printing Outputs.
• C Reading Input Values.
• C Strings.
• C Library String Functions.

Problem Definition

As we mentioned earlier, there are two important macros related to Date and Time. This example program demonstrate the usage of these macros.

__DATE__

The data macro expands to a string constant that display date when the preprocessor was run. It display the date in following format – “ Jan 23 2012 “. If it cannot show the data then, display –  “??? ??  ????“.

__TIME__

The time macro expands to a string that shows the current time when the preprocessor ran on the system. It display the time in following format – “12:55:35“. If date cannot be displayed then it shows –  “??? ??  ????”

Program Source Code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main()
{
     printf("Current Date: %s\n\n",__DATE__);
     printf("Current Time: %s\n\n",__TIME__);
     system("PAUSE"); 
     return 0;
}

Output

Current Date: Jul 11 2018
Current Time: 22:41:38
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