C++ Program to Print Current Day, Date and Time

Last Updated : 3 Sep, 2026

C++ provides functions in the <ctime> header to get and format the current date and time. By combining time(), localtime(), and asctime(), we can display the current local day, date, and time in a readable format.

  • time() gets the current calendar time.
  • localtime() converts it into the local date and time.
  • asctime() converts the result into a human-readable format.

Approach

The program follows these steps to obtain and display the current local date and time:

  • Call time() to get the current calendar time and store it in a time_t variable.
  • Pass this value to localtime() to obtain the corresponding local date and time.
  • Pass the resulting tm structure to asctime() and display the formatted output
C++ 
#include <ctime>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    // Declaring argument for time()
    time_t tt;

    // Declaring variable to store return value of
    // localtime()
    struct tm* ti;

    // Applying time()
    time(&tt);

    // Using localtime()
    ti = localtime(&tt);

    cout << "Current Day, Date and Time is = "
         << asctime(ti);

    return 0;
}

Output
Current Day, Date and Time is = Thu Sep  3 09:41:57 2026

Explanation

  • time_t tt stores the current calendar time returned by time().
  • time() gets the current time and stores it in tt.
  • localtime() converts tt into the corresponding local date and time.
  • asctime() converts the tm structure into a readable string, which is displayed using cout.

Note: The output depends on the system's current date, time, and time zone, as time() uses the system clock and localtime() uses the configured local time zone.

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