C Exercises: Show the start of the epoch

Last update on March 20 2025 12:31:29 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

10. Start of the Epoch Display

Write a program in C to show the start of the epoch.

Note : epoch means the beginning of a period in the history of someone.

Sample Solution:

C Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main(void)
{
    // Define and initialize a variable representing the epoch time
    time_t epoch = 0;

    // Print the number of seconds since the epoch started
    printf("\n%ld seconds since the epoch began\n", (long)epoch);

    // Convert epoch time to UTC time using gmtime and print it in human-readable format
    printf("%s\n", asctime(gmtime(&epoch)));
}

Output:

0 seconds since the epoch began
Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a C program to display 0 seconds since the epoch began and convert that to the standard calendar time "Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970".
• Write a C program to convert a time_t value of 0 into both GMT and local time representations to show the epoch start.
• Write a C program to print the epoch start time using time conversion functions and then calculate the elapsed time since the epoch.
• Write a C program to demonstrate the beginning of the Unix epoch by converting 0 seconds into a human-readable date and time format.

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