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C++ ctime difftime() Function

❮ ctime Functions


Example

Measure the difference in time between two timestamps:

struct tm date;
time_t now;
time_t before;

// Create a timestamp for right now
time(&now);

// Create a timestamp for 5 hours ago
date = *localtime(&now);
date.tm_hour -= 5;
before = mktime(&date);

// Calculate the difference between the two timestamps in seconds
cout << difftime(now, before);
Try it Yourself »

Definition and Usage

The difftime() function returns the number of seconds between two timestamps.

If the start timestamp is greater than the end timestamp then the result is a negative number.

The difftime() function is defined in the <ctime> header file.


Syntax

difftime(time_t end, time_t start);

The time_t data type represents a number.

Parameter Values

Parameter Description
end Required. The timestamp of the end of the time interval being measured.
start Required. The timestamp of the start of the time interval being measured.

Technical Details

Returns: A double value representing the number of seconds between the two timestamps.

❮ ctime Functions

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