Date print formatting to include month name

Projects Programming
1

I've got a couple projects going that keep a current time stamp on an lcd. One I'm brute forcing the time stamp via:

lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
  if (now.month() < 10)
    lcd.print("0");
  lcd.print(now.month(), DEC);
  lcd.print('/');
  if (now.day() < 10)
    lcd.print("0");
  lcd.print(now.day(), DEC);
  lcd.print('/');
  lcd.print(now.year(), DEC);
  lcd.print("  ");
  if (now.hour() < 10)
    lcd.print("0");
  lcd.print(now.hour(), DEC);
  lcd.print(':');
  if (now.minute() < 10)
    lcd.print("0");
  lcd.print(now.minute(), DEC);
  lcd.print(':');
  if (now.second() < 10)
    lcd.print("0");
  lcd.print(now.second(), DEC);

The second its streamlined to:

  lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
  lcd.print(__DATE__);

I like the fact that the streamlined/second code yields the month's abbreviation but when there are less than 10 days it leaves a blank for the initial character. I know how to eliminate that as done in first code. However, is there a function call that also does this without needing all the code as the first I've included? Do I need to use strings if I want to go this route or do I just need to brute the month into the first code? Imagined there is an easier way.

2

DATE is a preprocessor macro that represents the time the sketch was compiled at, so I doubt that's what you want.
Whatever time library you are using may offer conversion options, otherwise you can use the C library function strftime()

3

arduarn:
DATE is a preprocessor macro that represents the time the sketch was compiled at, so I doubt that's what you want.
Whatever time library you are using may offer conversion options, otherwise you can use the C library function strftime()

Thank you, I'll check out that function. Figured there were fairly easy method(s) but still pretty green at coding and ya don't know what ya don't know.
Again, mahalo!

4

You may also be able to use a construct like this for date formatting:

char buf[40] ;
sprintf( buf, "%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d", year( tl ), month( tl ), day( tl ), hour( tl ), minute( tl ) , second( tl ) ) ;
Serial.print( buf ) ;

You can adapt it to handle a text month and omit the tl arguments.