STRFTIME(3)

NAME
strftime - format date and time

SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
size_t
strftime(char *buf, size_t maxsize, const char *format, const struct tm *timeptr);

DESCRIPTION
The strftime() function formats the information from timeptr into the buffer buf according to the string pointed to by format.

The format string consists of zero or more conversion specifications and ordinary characters. All ordinary characters are copied directly into the buffer. A conversion specification consists of a percent sign “‘%’” and one other character.

No more than maxsize characters will be placed into the array. If the total number of resulting characters, including the terminating null character, is not more than maxsize, strftime() returns the number of characters in the array, not counting the terminating null. Otherwise, zero is returned and the buffer contents is indeterminate.

Each conversion specification is replaced by the characters as follows which are then copied into the buffer.

%A  is replaced by national representation of the full weekday name.

%a  is replaced by national representation of the abbreviated weekday name, where the abbreviation is the first three characters.

%B  is replaced by national representation of the full month name.

%b  is replaced by national representation of the abbreviated month name, where the abbreviation is the first three characters.

%C  is replaced by (year / 100) as decimal number; single digits are preceded by a zero.

%c  is replaced by national representation of time and date (the format is similar with produced by asctime(3)).

%D  is equivalent to “%m/%d/%y”.

%d  is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (01-31).

%E* POSIX locale extensions. The sequences %Ec %EC %Ex %Ey %EY %Od %Oe %OH %OI %Om %OM %OS %Ou %OU %OV %Ow %OW %Oy are supposed to provide alternate representations.

%e  is replaced by the day of month as a decimal number (1-31); single digits are preceded by a blank.

%H  is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (00-23).

%h  the same as %b.

%I  is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (01-12).

%j  is replaced by the day of the year as a decimal number (001-366).

%k  is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0-23); single digits are preceded by a blank.

%l  is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1-12); single digits are preceded by a blank.

%M  is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00-59).

%m  is replaced by the month as a decimal number (01-12).

%n  is replaced by a newline.

%O* the same as %E*.

%p  is replaced by national representation of either "ante meridiem" or "post meridiem" as appropriate.

%R  is equivalent to “%H:%M”.

%r  is equivalent to “%I:%M:%S %p”.

%S  is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00-60).

%s  is replaced by the number of seconds since the Epoch, UTC (see mktime(3)).

%T  is equivalent to “%H:%M:%S”.

%t  is replaced by a tab.

%U  is replaced by the week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (00-53).

%u  is replaced by the weekday (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (1-7).

%V  is replaced by the week number of the year (the first Monday as the first day of week 1) as a decimal number (01-53).

%v  is equivalent to “%e-%b-%Y”.

%W  is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (00-53).

%w  is replaced by the weekday (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number (0-6).

%X  is replaced by national representation of the time.

%x  is replaced by national representation of the date.

%Y  is replaced by the year with century as a decimal number.

%y  is replaced by the year without century as a decimal number (00-99).

%Z  is replaced by the time zone name.

%+  is replaced by national representation of the date and time (the format is similar with produced by date(1)).

%%  is replaced by ‘%’.

SEE ALSO
date(1), printf(1), ctime(3), printf(3)

STANDARDS
The strftime() function conforms to ansiC. The ‘%s’ conversion specification is an extension.

BUGS
There is no conversion specification for the phase of the moon.