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C Library Function - difftime()

C Standard Library - <time.h>

Description

The C library function double difftime(timet time1, timet time2) returns the difference in seconds between time1 and time2 (time1 - time2). Both times are specified in calendar time, representing the time elapsed since the Epoch (Coordinated Universal Time UTC: 1970-01-01 00:00:00).

Declaration

Below is the declaration for the difftime() function.

double difftime(time_t time1, time_t time2)

Parameters

Return Value

The function returns the difference in seconds between the two times (time1 - time2) as a double precision floating-point number.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of the difftime() function.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#ifdef _WIN32
#include <Windows.h>
#else
#include <unistd.h>
#endif

int main ()
{
   time_t start_t, end_t;
   double diff_t;

   printf("Program start...\n");
   time(&start_t);

   printf("Sleeping for 5 seconds...\n");
   sleep(5);

   time(&end_t);
   diff_t = difftime(end_t, start_t);

   printf("Execution time = %f\n", diff_t);
   printf("Program exit...\n");

   return(0);
}

Let's compile and run the above program, which will produce the following result:

Program start...
Sleeping for 5 seconds...
Execution time = 5.000000
Program exit...

C Standard Library - <time.h>

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