title: C++ converting string to time_t question
body: <p>Im trying to convert a string such as "12 August 2011" into time_t or that seconds elapsed, or whatever so I can use it to compare a list of dates.</p>
  
  <p>At the moment, I have tried the following but the output seems to equal false! Also, the seconds elapsed seem to keep changing?</p>
  
  <p>Is this correct?</p>
  
  <pre><code>#include &lt;iostream&gt;
  #include &lt;string&gt;
  #include &lt;cstdlib&gt;
  #include &lt;cstring&gt;
  #include &lt;time.h&gt;
  #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
  
  using namespace std;
  
  int main()
  {
  
      struct tm tmlol, tmloltwo;
      time_t t, u;
  
      t = mktime(&amp;tmlol);
      u = mktime(&amp;tmloltwo);
      //char test[] = "01/01/2008";string test = "01/01/2008";
  
      strptime("10 February 2010", "%d %b %Y", &amp;tmlol);
      strptime("10 February 2010", "%d %b %Y", &amp;tmloltwo);
  
      t = mktime(&amp;tmlol);
      u = mktime(&amp;tmloltwo);
  
      cout &lt;&lt; t &lt;&lt; endl;
      cout &lt;&lt; u &lt;&lt; endl;
  
      if (u&gt;t)
      {
          cout &lt;&lt; "true" &lt;&lt; endl;
      }
      else if (u==t)
      {
          cout &lt;&lt; "same" &lt;&lt; endl;
      }
      else
      {
          cout &lt;&lt; "false" &lt;&lt; endl;
      }
  
      cout &lt;&lt; (u-t);
  }
  </code></pre>