Brad, I've been reading this discussion with interest, because I had to create a function some time ago to convert mail header date/time strings to time_t values. While my function represents another possible entry in your list, I don't think it answers all the criteria that this discussion has established. For example, it returns a time_t, not a struct tm, and it doesn't return a character pointer to the end ot its scan (although it could). The major contribution of this function might be the list of time zone abbreviations that it understands. Paul Eggert has helped me assemble (and purify) it. :-) I will be glad to contribute my atotm() function to the list of prior art, for whatever value it might have. Vic Abell