c++timesystem-clock

C++ Get System time as number of seconds in day


I am writing a program to put time-stamps on images taken with a camera. To do that I am using the Windows 7 system time. I have used GetSystemTimeAsFileTime() in the code below:

FILETIME ft;
GetSystemTimeAsFileTime(&ft);
long long ll_now = (LONGLONG)ft.dwLowDateTime + ((LONGLONG)(ft.dwHighDateTime) << 32LL);

What I want to do is to get the number of seconds gone in the day (0- 86400) with millisecond resolution so it will be something like 12345.678. Is this the right way to do it? If so, how to I convert this integer to get the number of seconds gone in the current day? I will be displaying the time in a string and using fstream to put the times in a text file.

Thanks


Solution

  • I don't know Window API but the C++ standard libraries (since C++11) can be used like this:

    #include <ctime>
    #include <chrono>
    #include <string>
    #include <sstream>
    #include <iomanip>
    #include <iostream>
    
    std::string stamp_secs_dot_ms()
    {
        using namespace std::chrono;
    
        auto now = system_clock::now();
    
        // tt stores time in seconds since epoch
        std::time_t tt = system_clock::to_time_t(now);
    
        // broken time as of now
        std::tm bt = *std::localtime(&tt);
    
        // alter broken time to the beginning of today
        bt.tm_hour = 0;
        bt.tm_min = 0;
        bt.tm_sec = 0;
    
        // convert broken time back into std::time_t
        tt = std::mktime(&bt);
    
        // start of today in system_clock units
        auto start_of_today = system_clock::from_time_t(tt);
    
        // today's duration in system clock units
        auto length_of_today = now - start_of_today;
    
        // seconds since start of today
        seconds secs = duration_cast<seconds>(length_of_today); // whole seconds
    
        // milliseconds since start of today
        milliseconds ms = duration_cast<milliseconds>(length_of_today);
    
        // subtract the number of seconds from the number of milliseconds
        // to get the current millisecond
        ms -= secs;
    
        // build output string
        std::ostringstream oss;
        oss.fill('0');
    
        oss << std::setw(5) << secs.count();
        oss << '.' << std::setw(3) << ms.count();
    
        return oss.str();
    }
    
    int main()
    {
        std::cout << stamp_secs_dot_ms() << '\n';
    }
    

    Example Output:

    13641.509