D.1.7 TIME Subroutine

The TIME subroutine returns the current system time as an ASCII string. The call to TIME takes the following form:

CALL TIME (buf)
buf
Is an 8-byte variable, array, array element, or character substring.

The time is returned as an 8-byte ASCII character string having the following form:

hh:mm:ss
hh
Is the 2-digit hour indication.
mm
Is the 2-digit minute indication.
ss
Is the 2-digit second indication.

The following is an example of a value returned from a call to TIME:

13:45:23

Note that a 24-hour clock is used.

If buf is numeric type and smaller than 8 bytes, data corruption can occur.

If buf is character type, its associated length is passed to the subroutine. If buf is smaller than 8 bytes, the subroutine truncates the date to fit in the specified length. Note that if a CHARACTER array is passed, the subroutine stores the time in the first array element, using the element length-not the length of the entire array. For example, consider the following:

CHARACTER*1 HOUR(8)
 . . .
CALL TIME(HOUR)

The length of the first array element in CHARACTER array HOUR is passed to the TIME subroutine. The subroutine then truncates the time to fit into the one-character element, producing an incorrect result.


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