convert a string in to time format in c

Question

suppose I have a string "2011-08-21 21:48:45 +1200",and another one with the same format,
I want to compare these 2 strings to find out which one is the early one or later one,
is there a easy way to convert a string to time format rather than compare them by characters? Thanks

Answer 1

use getdate or strptime().