How to compare two time stamp in format "Month Date hh:mm:ss" to check +ve or -ve value

c, c++, comparison, time

Solution

FIRST- use difftime to compare:

you can simply use `difftime()` function to compare time and return `1` or `-1` as follows:

int comparetime(time_t time1,time_t time2){
 return difftime(time1,time2) > 0.0 ? 1 : -1; 
}

SECOND- Convert string into time:

If you have difficulty to convert `string` into `time_t` struct, you can use two functions in sequence:

`char *strptime(const char *buf, const char *format, struct tm *tm);` function. to convert string into `struct tm`

Example: to convert date-time string `"Mar 21 11:51:20 AM"` into `struct tm` you need three formate strings:

%b : Month name, can be either the full name or an abbreviation %d : Day of the month [1–31]. %r : Time in AM/PM format of the locale. If not available in the locale time format, defaults to the POSIX time AM/PM format: `%I:%M:%S %p`.

`time_t mktime (struct tm * timeptr);` function to convert `struct tm*` to `time_t`

Below Is my example program:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
int main(void){
    time_t t1, t2;
    struct tm *timeptr,tm1, tm2;
    char* time1 = "Mar 21 11:51:20 AM";
    char* time2 = "Mar 21 10:20:05 AM";

    //(1) convert `String to tm`:  
    if(strptime(time1, "%b %d %r",&tm1) == NULL)
            printf("\nstrptime failed\n");          
    if(strptime(time2, "%b %d %r",&tm2) == NULL)
            printf("\nstrptime failed\n");

    //(2)   convert `tm to time_t`:    
    t1 = mktime(&tm1);
    t2 = mktime(&tm2);  

     printf("\n t1 > t2 : %d", comparetime(t1, t2));
     printf("\n t2 > t1 : %d", comparetime(t2, t1));
     printf("\n");
     return 1;
}

And it works as you desire:

 $ ./a.out 
 t1 > t2 : 1
 t2 > t1 : -1

To calculate difference between two dates read: How do you find the difference between two dates in hours, in C?

Problem

I checked the stackoverflow site for my answer, i did not get, so i am posting it here. My problem is: How to compare two time stamp in format `"Month Date hh:mm:ss"`? I am writing program in C and C++ and the time is in displayable string format. Example : ``` time1 = "Mar 21 11:51:20" time2 = "Mar 21 10:20:05" ``` I want to compare time1 and tme2 and find out whether `time2` is after `time1` or not and I need output as `true` or `false`, like below: ``` if time2 > time1 then i need output as 1 or 0 or -1 anything ``` I used `difftime(time2,time1)` , but it returns the delta time `diff` between `time1` and `time2`. I want to check greater or not. For any help, thanks in advance

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