Edit

Share via

asctime_s, _wasctime_s

  • Article

Convert a tm time structure to a character string. These functions are versions of asctime, _wasctime with security enhancements as described in Security features in the CRT.

Syntax

errno_t asctime_s(
   char* buffer,
   size_t numberOfElements,
   const struct tm *tmSource
);
errno_t _wasctime_s(
   wchar_t* buffer,
   size_t numberOfElements
   const struct tm *tmSource
);
template <size_t size>
errno_t asctime_s(
   char (&buffer)[size],
   const struct tm *tmSource
); // C++ only
template <size_t size>
errno_t _wasctime_s(
   wchar_t (&buffer)[size],
   const struct tm *tmSource
); // C++ only

Parameters

buffer
A pointer to a buffer to store the character string result. This function assumes a pointer to a valid memory location with a size specified by numberOfElements.

numberOfElements
The size of the buffer used to store the result.

tmSource
Time/date structure. This function assumes a pointer to a valid struct tm object.

Return value

Zero if successful. If there's a failure, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter validation. If execution is allowed to continue, the return value is an error code. Error codes are defined in ERRNO.H. For more information, see errno constants. The actual error codes returned for each error condition are shown in the following table.

Error conditions

buffer numberOfElements tmSource Return Value in buffer
NULL Any Any EINVAL Not modified
Not NULL (points to valid memory) 0 Any EINVAL Not modified
Not NULL 0< numberOfElements < 26 Any EINVAL Empty string
Not NULL >= 26 NULL EINVAL Empty string
Not NULL >= 26 Invalid time structure or out of range values for components of the time EINVAL Empty string

Note

Error conditions for wasctime_s are similar to asctime_s with the exception that the size limit is measured in words.

Remarks

The asctime function converts a time stored as a structure to a character string. The tmSource value is typically obtained from a call to gmtime or localtime. Both functions can be used to fill in a tm structure, as defined in TIME.H.

timeptr member Value
tm_hour Hours since midnight (0-23)
tm_isdst Positive if daylight saving time is in effect; 0 if daylight saving time isn't in effect; negative if status of daylight saving time is unknown. The C run-time library assumes the United States' rules for implementing the calculation of Daylight Saving Time (DST).
tm_mday Day of month (1-31)
tm_min Minutes after hour (0-59)
tm_mon Month (0-11; January = 0)
tm_sec Seconds after minute (0-59)
tm_wday Day of week (0-6; Sunday = 0)
tm_yday Day of year (0-365; January 1 = 0)
tm_year Year (current year minus 1900)

The converted character string is also adjusted according to the local time zone settings. For information about configuring the local time, see the time, _time32, _time64, _ftime, _ftime32, _ftime64, and localtime_s, _localtime32_s, _localtime64_s functions. For information about defining the time zone environment and global variables, see _tzset.

The string result produced by asctime_s contains exactly 26 characters and has the form Wed Jan 2 02:03:55 1980\n\0. A 24-hour clock is used. All fields have a constant width. The new line character and the null character occupy the last two positions of the string. The value passed in as numberOfElements should be at least this size. If it's less, an error code, EINVAL, will be returned.

_wasctime_s is a wide-character version of asctime_s. _wasctime_s and asctime_s behave identically otherwise.

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
_tasctime_s asctime_s asctime_s _wasctime_s

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. For more information, see Secure template overloads.

Requirements

Routine Required header
asctime_s <time.h>
_wasctime_s <time.h> or <wchar.h>

Security

If the buffer pointer isn't NULL and the pointer doesn't point to a valid buffer, the function will overwrite whatever is at the location. This error can also result in an access violation.

A buffer overrun can occur if the size argument passed in is greater than the actual size of the buffer.

Example

This program places the system time in the long integer aclock, translates it into the structure newtime, and then converts it to string form for output, using the asctime_s function.

// crt_asctime_s.c
#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>

struct tm newtime;
__time32_t aclock;

int main( void )
{
   char buffer[32];
   errno_t errNum;
   _time32( &aclock );   // Get time in seconds.
   _localtime32_s( &newtime, &aclock );   // Convert time to struct tm form.

   // Print local time as a string.

   errNum = asctime_s(buffer, 32, &newtime);
   if (errNum)
   {
       printf("Error code: %d", (int)errNum);
       return 1;
   }
   printf( "Current date and time: %s", buffer );
   return 0;
}

Current date and time: Wed May 14 15:30:17 2003

See also

Time management
ctime_s, _ctime32_s, _ctime64_s, _wctime_s, _wctime32_s, _wctime64_s
_ftime, _ftime32, _ftime64
gmtime_s, _gmtime32_s, _gmtime64_s
localtime_s, _localtime32_s, _localtime64_s
time, _time32, _time64
_tzset