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NAME
strptime - date and time conversion
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
char *strptime(const char *restrict buf, const char *restrict format,
struct tm *restrict tm);
DESCRIPTION
The strptime() function shall convert the character string pointed to by buf to values which are stored
in the tm structure pointed to by tm, using the format specified by format.
The format is composed of zero or more directives. Each directive is composed of one of the following:
one or more white-space characters (as specified by isspace()); an ordinary character (neither '%' nor a
white-space character); or a conversion specification. Each conversion specification is composed of a
'%' character followed by a conversion character which specifies the replacement required. The
application shall ensure that there is white-space or other non-alphanumeric characters between any two
conversion specifications. The following conversion specifications are supported:
%a The day of the week, using the locale's weekday names; either the abbreviated or full name may be
specified.
%A Equivalent to %a .
%b The month, using the locale's month names; either the abbreviated or full name may be specified.
%B Equivalent to %b .
%c Replaced by the locale's appropriate date and time representation.
%C The century number [00,99]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%d The day of the month [01,31]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%D The date as %m / %d / %y .
%e Equivalent to %d .
%h Equivalent to %b .
%H The hour (24-hour clock) [00,23]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%I The hour (12-hour clock) [01,12]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%j The day number of the year [001,366]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%m The month number [01,12]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%M The minute [00,59]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%n Any white space.
%p The locale's equivalent of a.m or p.m.
%r 12-hour clock time using the AM/PM notation if t_fmt_ampm is not an empty string in the LC_TIME
portion of the current locale; in the POSIX locale, this shall be equivalent to %I : %M : %S %p .
%R The time as %H : %M .
%S The seconds [00,60]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%t Any white space.
%T The time as %H : %M : %S .
%U The week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number [00,53];
leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%w The weekday as a decimal number [0,6], with 0 representing Sunday; leading zeros are permitted but
not required.
%W The week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number [00,53];
leading zeros are permitted but not required.
%x The date, using the locale's date format.
%X The time, using the locale's time format.
%y The year within century. When a century is not otherwise specified, values in the range [69,99]
shall refer to years 1969 to 1999 inclusive, and values in the range [00,68] shall refer to years
2000 to 2068 inclusive; leading zeros shall be permitted but shall not be required.
Note:
It is expected that in a future version of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 the default century inferred from
a 2-digit year will change. (This would apply to all commands accepting a 2-digit year as input.)
%Y The year, including the century (for example, 1988).
%% Replaced by % .
Modified Conversion Specifiers
Some conversion specifiers can be modified by the E and O modifier characters to indicate that an
alternative format or specification should be used rather than the one normally used by the unmodified
conversion specifier. If the alternative format or specification does not exist in the current locale,
the behavior shall be as if the unmodified conversion specification were used.
%Ec The locale's alternative appropriate date and time representation.
%EC The name of the base year (period) in the locale's alternative representation.
%Ex The locale's alternative date representation.
%EX The locale's alternative time representation.
%Ey The offset from %EC (year only) in the locale's alternative representation.
%EY The full alternative year representation.
%Od The day of the month using the locale's alternative numeric symbols; leading zeros are permitted
but not required.
%Oe Equivalent to %Od .
%OH The hour (24-hour clock) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
%OI The hour (12-hour clock) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
%Om The month using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
%OM The minutes using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
%OS The seconds using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
%OU The week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) using the locale's alternative
numeric symbols.
%Ow The number of the weekday (Sunday=0) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
%OW The week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) using the locale's alternative
numeric symbols.
%Oy The year (offset from %C ) using the locale's alternative numeric symbols.
A conversion specification composed of white-space characters is executed by scanning input up to the
first character that is not white-space (which remains unscanned), or until no more characters can be
scanned.
A conversion specification that is an ordinary character is executed by scanning the next character from
the buffer. If the character scanned from the buffer differs from the one comprising the directive, the
directive fails, and the differing and subsequent characters remain unscanned.
A series of conversion specifications composed of %n , %t , white-space characters, or any combination is
executed by scanning up to the first character that is not white space (which remains unscanned), or
until no more characters can be scanned.
Any other conversion specification is executed by scanning characters until a character matching the next
directive is scanned, or until no more characters can be scanned. These characters, except the one
matching the next directive, are then compared to the locale values associated with the conversion
specifier. If a match is found, values for the appropriate tm structure members are set to values
corresponding to the locale information. Case is ignored when matching items in buf such as month or
weekday names. If no match is found, strptime() fails and no more characters are scanned.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, strptime() shall return a pointer to the character following the last
character parsed. Otherwise, a null pointer shall be returned.
ERRORS
No errors are defined.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
Several "equivalent to" formats and the special processing of white-space characters are provided in
order to ease the use of identical format strings for strftime() and strptime().
Applications should use %Y (4-digit years) in preference to %y (2-digit years).
It is unspecified whether multiple calls to strptime() using the same tm structure will update the
current contents of the structure or overwrite all contents of the structure. Conforming applications
should make a single call to strptime() with a format and all data needed to completely specify the date
and time being converted.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The strptime() function is expected to be mandatory in the next version of this volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.
SEE ALSO
scanf() , strftime() , time() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <time.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The
original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 STRPTIME(P)