The following example converts a string relative time in the format (1991-04-01-12:12:12.12I12.12) to a binary timestamp. This may be part of an input relative timestamp routine, though a real implementation will include range checking. utc_t utc; struct tm tmtime, tminacc; float tsec, isec; double tmp; long tnsec, insec; int i, tzhour, tzmin, year, mon; char *string; /* * Try to convert the string... */ if(sscanf(string, "%d-%d-%d-%d:%d:%eI%e", &year, &mon, &tmtime.tm_mday, &tmtime.tm_hour, &tmtime.tm_min, &tsec, &isec) != 7) { /* * ERROR... */ exit(1); } /* * Fill in the fields... */ tmtime.tm_year = year - 1900; tmtime.tm_mon = --mon; tmtime.tm_sec = tsec; tnsec = (modf(tsec, &tmp)*1.0E9); tminacc.tm_sec = isec; insec = (modf(isec, &tmp)*1.0E9); /* * Convert to a binary timestamp... */ utc_mkreltime(&utc, /* Out: Resultant binary timestamp */ &tmtime, /* In: tm struct that represents input */ tnsec, /* In: Nanoseconds from input */ &tminacc, /* In: tm struct that represents inacc */ insec); /* In: Nanoseconds from input */