Final answer:
strptime() is a function in the C programming language that converts a string representation of a date and time into a structured tm object. It is useful for parsing and manipulating dates in C programs.
Step-by-step explanation:
strptime() is a function in the C programming language that is used to convert a string representation of a date and time into a structured tm object. It takes two arguments: the string containing the date and time, and a format string that specifies the expected format of the date and time.
For example, if you have a string like '2022-01-31 09:30:00' and the format string is '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S', the strptime() function will parse the string and store each component (year, month, day, hour, minute, second) in the tm object.
Using the parsed tm object, you can perform various operations like comparing dates, extracting specific components, and formatting the date and time in a desired output format.