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strptime(3) Library Functions Manual strptime(3) NAME strptime - Converts a character string to a time value LIBRARY Standard C Library (libc.so, libc.a) SYNOPSIS #include <time.h> char *strptime( const char *buf, const char *format, struct tm *tm); STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: strptime(): XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. PARAMETERS Contains the character string to be converted by the strptime() func- tion. Specifies the format of the string to be converted by the strp- time() function. Specifies the structure to contain the output of the strptime() function. DESCRIPTION The strptime() function converts the characters pointed to by the buf parameter to values that are stored in the tm structure, using the for- mat specified by the format parameter. The strptime() function modi- fies only the fields in the tm structure that have corresponding con- version specifications in the format. The format parameter can contain zero or more of the following items: A conversion specification that directs the conversion of the next input field. Conversion specifications start with a % (percent sign). Any white space character (as determined by the isspace() function) that matches 0 (zero) or more white space characters in the input stream. Any character except % (percent sign) or a white space character that must match the next character in the input stream. If the character read from the input stream is different from the character in the for- mat parameter, the function stops processing the input stream and re- turns a null pointer. Conversion specifications must be separated by white-space or other non-alphanumeric characters. The following conversion specifications are supported: Inputs day of the week, using the locale-dependent weekday name. The abbreviated or full name may be specified. Same as %a. Inputs the month, using the locale-dependent month name. The abbreviated or full name may be speci- fied. Same as %b. Inputs the date and time, using the locale-depen- dent default format. Inputs the century as a decimal number in the range from 00 to 99. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the day of the month as a decimal number in the range from 01 to 31. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the date as %m/%d/%y. Same as %d. [Digital] Inputs the year, using the locale- dependent Emperor/Era name and year format. Same as %b. Inputs the hour based on a 24-hour clock as a decimal number in the range from 00 to 23. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the hour based on a 12-hour clock as a decimal number in the range from 00 to 12. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the day number of the year as a decimal number in the range from 001 to 366. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the month number as a decimal number in the range from 01 to 12. Leading zeros are per- mitted but not required. Inputs the minute as a decimal number in the range from 00 to 59. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs any white space up to and including a newline character. [Digi- tal] Inputs the Emperor/Era name. [Digital] Inputs the Emperor/Era year. Inputs the locale-dependent equivalent of AM or PM. Inputs the time as %I:%M:%S %p. Inputs the time as %H:%M. Inputs the second as a decimal number in the range from 00 to 61. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs any white-space up to and including a tab character. Inputs the time as %H:%M:%S. Inputs the week number of the year as a decimal number in the range from 00 to 53. Sunday is the first day of the week. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the weekday as a decimal number in the range from 0 to 6. Sun- day is the first day of the week. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the week number of the year as a decimal number in the range from 00 to 53. Monday is the first day of the week. Leading zeros are permitted but not required. Inputs the date, using the lo- cale-dependent short date format. Inputs the time, using the locale- dependent short time format. Inputs the year (excluding the century). When a century is not otherwise specified (for example, with %C), val- ues in the range 69-99 refer to years in the twentieth century (1969-1999, inclusive); values in the range 00-68 refer to years in the twenty-first century (2000 to 2068, inclusive). Leading zeros are per- mitted but not required. Inputs the year (including the century), for example, 1991. [Digital] Inputs the time-zone name. Inputs a % (per- cent sign) character. Case is ignored for the following conversion specifications when match- ing items such as month or weekday names in buf: %a, %A, %b, %B, %E, %h, %N, %p, and %r. Alternative-format Directives The E and O characters can be used with some of the directives to stip- ulate that an alternative format be used, if available. If the alter- native format is not available in the current locale, the modifier will be ignored and the unmodified behavior for that directive will be fol- lowed. Inputs the date and time, using the locale-dependent alternative for- mat. Inputs the base year (period), using the locale-dependent alter- native format. Inputs the date, using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the time, using the locale-dependent alternative for- mat. Inputs the year within the century, using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the year (including the century), using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the day of the month, us- ing the locale-dependent alternative format. Leading zeros are permit- ted but not required. Same as %Od. Inputs the hour (24-hour clock), using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the hour (12-hour clock), using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the month number, using the locale-dependent alternative format. In- puts the minute, using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the second, using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the week number (Sunday as first day of week), using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the number of the weekday (Sunday=0), using the locale-dependent alternative format. Inputs the week number (Mon- day as first day of week), using the locale-dependent alternative for- mat. Inputs the year (offset from %C) in the locale-dependent alterna- tive representation and using the locale-dependent alternative numeric symbols. A directive consisting of white-space characters is executed by reading input until reaching the first nonwhite-space character, which is not read, or until no more characters can be read. A directive consisting of an ordinary character is executed by reading the next character from the buf parameter. If the character read from the buf parameter differs from the character comprising the directive, the directive fails and the differing character and any characters fol- lowing it remain unread. Case is ignored when matching buf items, such as month or weekday names. If a conversion fails, the contents of the tm structure are undefined. In most cases, it is possible to use the same format in the strftime() and strptime() calls because most of the conversion specifications for- mats are identical in both functions. NOTES Applications should use %Y (4-digit years) in preference to %y (2-digit years). RETURN VALUES On successful completion, the strptime() function returns a pointer to the character following the last character parsed. Otherwise, a null pointer is returned. ERRORS The strptime() function sets errno to the specified values for the fol- lowing conditions: The functionality is not supported on this implementation. RELATED INFORMATION Functions: scanf(3), strfmon(3), strftime(3), time(3) Standards: standards(5) delim off strptime(3)