You could use strftime.Code:#include <stdio.h> #include <time.h> int main(void) { time_t now; if ( time(&now) != (time_t)(-1) ) { struct tm *mytime = localtime(&now); if ( mytime ) { char buffer [ 32 ]; if ( strftime(buffer, sizeof buffer, "%X", mytime) ) { printf("buffer = \"%s\"\n", buffer); } } } return 0; } /* my output buffer = "09:09:26" */