C51: Format of __DATE__ Macro Has Changed

Information in this article applies to:

• C51 Version 5.50

QUESTION

I have just upgraded to version 5.50 of the C51 compiler and I notice that the format of the __DATE__ macro has changed. It used to be something like:

11/08/00

and now it is:

Nov 08 2000

However, my code was dependent on the old format. Is there any way to change it back?

ANSWER

The format was changed to meet the ANSI C Standard (see section 6.8.8). There is no option to change the format back, however, some simple C code will allow you to extract the month, day and year from the new format.

The function getdate(), shown below, uses the global array months to place the month, day and year into the global unsigned chars. This can be used as a basis for your own code.

#include
#include

unsigned char month, day, year;

code const char *months[] = {"Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug",
                            "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"};

void getdate(void)
{
  char temp [] = __DATE__;
  unsigned char i;

  year = atoi(temp + 9);
  *(temp + 6) = 0;
  day = atoi(temp + 4);
  *(temp + 3) = 0;
  for (i = 0; i < 12; i++)
  {
    if (!strcmp(temp, months[i]))
    {
      month = i + 1;
      return;
    }
  }
}

void main(void)
{
  getdate();
  while(1);
}

MORE INFORMATION

• Refer to the ANSI C Standard, section 6.8.8 Predefined macro names.

• Refer to Predefined Macros in the Cx51 User's Guide.

SEE ALSO

• C51: __DATE__ and __TIME__ Macros
• µVision DEBUGGER: Date and Time of Target Routines
• C51: WARNING 317 (MACRO 'NAME': INVALID REDEFINITION)
• GENERAL: Defining a String on the Complier Command Line

Last Reviewed: Thursday, February 25, 2021