# $EPIC: strftime.txt,v 1.5 2006/08/29 18:22:56 sthalik Exp $
======Synopsis:======
$__strftime__(<format>) \\
$__strftime__(<time_t> <format>)

======Technical:======
   * If the <format> argument is omitted the empty string is returned.
   * If the <format> argument is invalid the empty string is returned.
   * The first argument is optional.  If provided it must be the number of seconds since the epoch (e.g. $[[time function|time]]()).  If a time is not provided, the current $[[time function|time]]() is used.
   * The rest of the argument(s) are taken as a strftime(3) format string and are passed directly to strftime(3).
   * The return value of the function is the specified time converted into the human readable form described by your strftime(3) format.
   * Avoid using system-specific strftime(3) formats for portability reasons.

======Practical:======
You should refer to your system's strftime man page (``man strftime'')
for exact details of what a strftime format looks like, because describing
them is beyond the scope of a help file. =)  But this function is very
useful for creating timestamps that look just like how you want them.

======Returns:======
A description of the specified <time_t> using the format string <format>,
as processed by strftime(3).

======Examples:======
<file>
$strftime(%d %B %Y)  might return "13 December 1996"
$strftime(%x at %X)  might return "12/13/96 at 16:45:42"
$strftime(%m/%d/%y)  might return "07/16/01"
$strftime(%Y/%m/%d)  might return "2001/07/16"
</file>

======History:======
This function first appeared in ircII-2.8.1, and was first included
in EPIC3pre8.