_strtime_s, _wstrtime_s

Copy the current time to a buffer. These functions are versions of _strtime, _wstrtime with security enhancements as described in Security features in the CRT.

Syntax

errno_t _strtime_s(
   char *buffer,
   size_t numberOfElements
);
errno_t _wstrtime_s(
   wchar_t *buffer,
   size_t numberOfElements
);
template <size_t size>
errno_t _strtime_s(
   char (&buffer)[size]
); // C++ only
template <size_t size>
errno_t _wstrtime_s(
   wchar_t (&buffer)[size]
); // C++ only

Parameters

buffer
A buffer, at least 10 bytes long, where the time will be written.

numberOfElements
The size of the buffer.

Return value

Zero if successful.

If an error condition occurs, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter validation. The return value is an error code if there's a failure. Error codes are defined in ERRNO.H; see the following table for the exact errors generated by this function. For more information on error codes, see errno constants.

Error conditions

buffer	numberOfElements	Return	Contents of buffer
NULL	(any)	EINVAL	Not modified
Not NULL (pointing to valid buffer)	0	EINVAL	Not modified
Not NULL (pointing to valid buffer)	0 < size < 9	EINVAL	Empty string
Not NULL (pointing to valid buffer)	Size > 9	0	Current time formatted as specified in the remarks

Security issues

Passing in an invalid non-NULL value for the buffer will result in an access violation if the numberOfElements parameter is greater than 9.

Passing a value for numberOfElements that is greater than the actual size of the buffer will result in buffer overrun.

Remarks

These functions provide more secure versions of _strtime and _wstrtime. The _strtime_s function copies the current local time into the buffer pointed to by buffer. The time is formatted as hh:mm:ss where hh is two digits representing the hour in 24-hour notation, mm is two digits representing the minutes past the hour, and ss is two digits representing seconds. For example, the string 18:23:44 represents 23 minutes and 44 seconds after 6 P.M. The buffer must be at least 9 bytes long; the actual size is specified by the second parameter.

_wstrtime_s is a wide-character version of _strtime_s; the argument and return value of _wstrtime_s are wide-character strings. These functions behave identically otherwise.

In C++, using these functions is simplified by template overloads; the overloads can infer buffer length automatically (eliminating the need to specify a size argument) and they can automatically replace older, non-secure functions with their newer, secure counterparts. For more information, see Secure template overloads.

The debug library versions of these functions first fill the buffer with 0xFE. To disable this behavior, use _CrtSetDebugFillThreshold.

By default, this function's global state is scoped to the application. To change this behavior, see Global state in the CRT.

Generic-text routine mapping

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tstrtime_s	_strtime_s	_strtime_s	_wstrtime_s

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_strtime_s	<time.h>
_wstrtime_s	<time.h> or <wchar.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

// strtime_s.c

#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    char tmpbuf[9];
    errno_t err;

    // Set time zone from TZ environment variable. If TZ is not set,
    // the operating system is queried to obtain the default value
    // for the variable.
    //
    _tzset();

    // Display operating system-style date and time.
    err = _strtime_s( tmpbuf, 9 );
    if (err)
    {
       printf("_strdate_s failed due to an invalid argument.");
      exit(1);
    }
    printf( "OS time:\t\t\t\t%s\n", tmpbuf );
    err = _strdate_s( tmpbuf, 9 );
    if (err)
    {
       printf("_strdate_s failed due to an invalid argument.");
       exit(1);
    }
    printf( "OS date:\t\t\t\t%s\n", tmpbuf );

}

OS time:            14:37:49
OS date:            04/25/03

See also

Time management
asctime_s, _wasctime_s
ctime_s, _ctime32_s, _ctime64_s, _wctime_s, _wctime32_s, _wctime64_s
gmtime_s, _gmtime32_s, _gmtime64_s
localtime_s, _localtime32_s, _localtime64_s
mktime, _mktime32, _mktime64
time, _time32, _time64
_tzset