ctime() is an I/O function that converts the "time_t" object pointed by the pointer "ptr" to return localtime, date in the format "day month year hours:minutes:seconds year\n\o". The formatted output string returned by this function is stored in a static character array. This array is overwritten each time the function is called.

    char * ctime ( const time_t * ptr );

   #include <iostream.h>
   #include <ctime.h>
   int main ()
     {
        time_t  ptr;
        time ( &ptr );
        printf ( "Current local time got using 
                 ctime is: %s", ctime (&ptr) );
        return 0;
     }

    Current local time got using ctime is: Mon Mar 08 16:05:10 2010

In the above example ctime() is used to get current time by giving the "ptr" to the calendar time by calling the "time()" function.