timeasctime

Time.asctime is a function in the Python standard library time module. It converts a time expressed as a 9‑element tuple or a time.struct_time into a readable string.

Signature and inputs: time.asctime([t]). If t is omitted, the function uses the current local time (as returned by time.localtime()). If provided, t must be a 9‑element sequence with the form (year, month, day, hour, minute, second, weekday, yearday, dst). The values in t are used to produce the output string. A time.struct_time instance is also accepted.

Return value: The function returns a 24‑character string representing the time, typically in the form "Mon Jun 28 23:12:03 2010". The exact layout is a fixed, human‑readable representation that includes the abbreviated weekday, the month name, the day of the month, the time, and the year.

Examples and usage: time.asctime() yields a string for the current local time. For a specific time, one can pass a 9‑element tuple such as time.asctime((2023, 3, 14, 15, 9, 26, 1, 73, -1)). The output is locale‑consistent in its structure, but the exact names and formatting follow the standard implementation.

Error handling: If t is provided and is not a 9‑element sequence, a TypeError is raised. If any field falls outside valid ranges, an OverflowError may occur. Incorrect or malformed input generally results in an exception rather than a malformed string.

Related functions: time.asctime is related to time.localtime, time.gmtime, time.mktime, and time.ctime, which offer other ways to work with and format times in Python.