datestrftimeA

datestrftimeA is a function found in some C libraries that formats a broken-down time structure into an ASCII string. It is analogous to the standard strftime, but provided as an ANSI (narrow character) variant in environments that follow Windows-style naming conventions, where the A suffix denotes the narrow version and W denotes the wide-character version.

Prototype and behavior

A typical prototype is int datestrftimeA(char* dest, size_t maxsize, const char* format, const struct tm* timeptr); The function writes up to maxsize characters, including the terminating null, and returns the number of characters placed in the output array excluding the null terminator. If the formatted result does not fit in the provided buffer, the function returns 0. Like strftime, it relies on the current locale to determine language-specific names and formats.

Format and locale

datestrftimeA supports the same standard format specifiers as strftime (for example, %Y, %m, %d, %H, %M, %S, and locale-driven names for months and days). The exact set of supported specifiers and any library-specific extensions may vary by implementation. The output is ASCII, suitable for narrow-character interfaces and environments that expect char-based strings. The function usually uses the current C locale unless the library provides an explicit locale control.

Portability and usage

datestrftimeA is not part of the C standard. It is typically found in libraries that provide corresponding W variants (datestrftimeW) for wide-character support. For portable code, the standard strftime is generally preferred, with datestrftimeA used primarily in platforms or codebases that explicitly adopt the ANSI naming convention.

See also

strftime, datestrftimeW, locale APIs.