os.time and os.date
Get the current time.
Why Time Matters
Programs often need to know the current time. A game records when you scored, a log file stamps each event, and a reminder app counts down to a deadline.
Lua keeps its time tools in the built-in os library. The two stars are os.time and os.date. In this lesson you will meet both.
os.time Returns a Number
os.time() with no arguments returns the current moment as a single number.
That number is the count of seconds since a fixed point in the past (the epoch). It is just an integer, so you can store it, compare it, or do math with it.
local now = os.time()
print(now)
print(type(now))All lessons in this course
- os.time and os.date
- Formatting Dates
- Time Arithmetic
- Measuring Durations