<p>How do I convert a date string, formatted as <code>"MM-DD-YY HH:MM:SS"</code>, to a <code>time_t</code> value in either C or C++? </p>

I'm afraid there isn't any in Standard C / C++ . There is the POSIX function
```
strptime
```
which can convert to
```
struct tm
```
, which can then be converted to
```
time_t
```
using
```
mktime
```
.
If you are aiming for cross platform compatibility, better use
```
boost::date_time
```
, which has sophisticated functions for this.