asctime_s, _wasctime_s

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12/18/2017

The latest version of this topic can be found at asctime_s, _wasctime_s.

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

Parameters

buffer
[out] 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
[in] The size of the buffer used to store the result.

_tm
[in] Time/date structure. This function assumes a pointer to a valid struct``tm object.

Return Value

Zero if successful. If there is 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`	`tm`	Return	Value in `buffer`
`NULL`	Any	Any	`EINVAL`	Not modified
Not`NULL` (points to valid memory)	0	Any	`EINVAL`	Not modified
Not `NULL`	0< size < 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 _tm value is usually 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 is not 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. See the time, _time32, _time64, _ftime, _ftime32, _ftime64, and localtime_s, _localtime32_s, _localtime64_s functions for information about configuring the local time and the _tzset function for information about defining the time zone environment and global variables.

The string result produced by asctime_s contains exactly 26 characters and has the form Wed Jan 02 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 the second parameter should be at least this big. If it is 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.

Generic-Text Routine Mapping

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE & _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 is not NULL and the pointer does not point to a valid buffer, the function will overwrite whatever is at the location. This 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

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