GDateTime

GDateTime is a date and time representation provided by GLib, the core utility library used by GNOME and many GTK-based applications. It stores a specific moment in time along with a time zone, enabling consistent handling of dates and times across platforms and locales.

GDateTime is a boxed, reference-counted type. Instances are created via constructor helpers that can specify calendar components (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), or obtain the current time in UTC or the local time zone, or be created from Unix epoch seconds. A GTimeZone object can be supplied to choose or change the associated time zone.

The API allows access to the individual components of the timestamp, such as year, month, day, hour, minute, and second, as well as information about the time zone. It also provides comparison operations to determine ordering or equality between two GDateTime values. In addition, GDateTime can be formatted to human-readable strings using locale-aware formatting functions, enabling output suitable for user interfaces and logging.

GDateTime integrates with GLib’s broader time utilities, including support for time zone conversions and interoperability with other time representations. This makes it a convenient choice for applications that must display, compare, store, or transform dates and times in a cross-platform, locale-sensitive manner.

Historically, GDateTime is part of GLib’s date and time API and is widely used in GNOME-based software, as well as in libraries and applications built on GLib. It complements lower-level time representations by providing a portable, high-level interface for date-time arithmetic, formatting, and time zone handling.