LocalDateTime, UniversalDateTime... how to compare
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Hi,
I need to get the current time and some other time and compare them. Both are possibly in different time zones, so my guess is that using
UniversalDateTime
and converting toLocalDateTime
is the way to go here. I need to find out the difference betweencurrentDate
andotherDate
in days.I could not find an example for this.
This is the code so far:
// Get current date maxon::LocalDateTime currentDate(maxon::LocalDateTime::GetNow()); // Format string for date parsing const Char* dateFormatString = "%Y%m%d"; // Some other date String otherDateString = String("20200801"); // For testing, use August 1st 2020 const maxon::LocalDateTime otherDate = maxon::LocalDateTime::FromString(otherDateString, dateFormatString) iferr_ignore(); // How many days between the dates? maxon::UniversalDateTime difference = otherDate.ConvertToUniversalDateTime() - currentDate.ConvertToUniversalDateTime(); // Obviously, not correct
Thanks in advance & cheers,
FrankEDIT: Originally, I had posted two questions. The solution to the first one came to me right after posting, so I removed the question.
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Inspired by a posting on Stackoverflow and a page in the SDK docs, I tried it like this:
std::tm stdCurrentDate = maxon::ConvertLocalDateTimeToTM(currentDate); std::tm stdOtherDate = maxon::ConvertLocalDateTimeToTM(otherDate); Int32 daysDifference = (Int32)(std::difftime(std::mktime(&stdOtherDate), std::mktime(&stdCurrentDate)) / (60 * 60 * 24));
But it does not compile, because there is no
ConvertLocalDateTimeToTM()
in themaxon
namespace.I learned about that function on this documentation page: https://developers.maxon.net/docs/cpp/2023_2/page_maxonapi_maxon_convertlocaldatetimetofromtm.html, which header do I have to include to make it work? It does not seem to be
maxon/ansi_type_conversions.h
, as that gives me several errors when included. -
By the way, the above posted code also throws a rather strange error:
No member named 'FORBIDDENI_CALL_USE_mktime_r' in namespace 'std'
Is it possible that it's supposed to beFORBIDDEN_CALL_USE_mktime_r
, without the "I" ?Also, the documentation for that macro is a bit confusing (
ansi_type_conversions.h
, line 122):
// The following functions should be avoided. On Windows and OSX these functions are thread-safe, but not on Windows.
So, are they thread safe on Windows, or are they not? -
Hm,
I might be overlooking something here, as I just did look at the the docs, but are the arithmetic operators for
UniversalDateTime
not only defined forTimeValue
as being the other operand (Signature for the difference operator), while you are trying to invoke it on anotherUniversalDateTime
?Have you considered to just subtract the Unix epoch format representation of your values (via
UniversalDateTime::GetUnixTimestamp()
) and then convert that result into the desired output format (e.g. days) by simple division?edit: eh, I did overlook the "obviously not correct" comment, due to being on an iPad, but the rest should still apply.
Cheers
zipit -
That sounds feasible, I'll try that. Thanks!
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However, I would still like to know how I can (or why I can't) use ConvertLocalDateTimeToTM(), as it is listed in the SDK docs.
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I tried like this:
// Format string for date parsing const Char* dateFormatString = "%Y%m%d"; // Current date maxon::LocalDateTime currentDate(maxon::LocalDateTime::GetNow()); // Get expiry date expirationDateString = String("20191025"); maxon::LocalDateTime expirationDate = maxon::LocalDateTime::FromString(expirationDateString, dateFormatString) iferr_ignore(); expirationDate._hour = 0; expirationDate._minute = 0; expirationDate._second = 0; expirationDate._daylightSavingTime = maxon::DST::AUTOMATIC; // Convert local to universal datetime maxon::UniversalDateTime universalCurrentDate = currentDate.ConvertToUniversalDateTime(); maxon::UniversalDateTime universalExpirationDate = expirationDate.ConvertToUniversalDateTime(); // Convert universal datetime to Unix timestamp UInt64 currentDateStamp = universalCurrentDate.GetUnixTimestamp(); UInt64 expirationDateStamp = universalExpirationDate.GetUnixTimestamp(); // Subtract timestamps UInt64 remainingDaysStamp = expirationDateStamp - currentDateStamp; // Convert seconds to days Int64 daysDifference = remainingDaysStamp / (60 * 60 * 24);
But it gives me an incredibly high value for daysDifference, even though the dates are just 4 days apart.
Printing the values to the console, these are the surprising results:
Current date LOCAL: 2019-10-29 10:51:20 (that is correct!) Expiration date LOCAL: 2019-10-25 00:00:00 (that is what I expected, too) Current date UNIVERSAL: 2019-10-29 09:51:20 (that is also correct) Expiration date UNIVERSAL: 2019-10-24 22:00:00 (why 22:00 ??) Current date UNIX: 1572342680 Expiration date UNIX: 1571954400 Days difference: 213503982334596 (why??)
How cumbersome can it be to just subtract two dates from each other?
If I just knew how to useConvertLocalDateTimeToTM()
, the problem would've been long solved.And why is daysDifference so large? If I calculate it myself with a pocket calculator, I get this:
(1571954400 - 1572342680) / (60 * 60 * 24) = -4,4939814815
And that is exactly why I would expect: About four and a half days.
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Hi,
hm, I am not much into the finer details of C++ (in this case how C++ handles implicit casts like this), but could it be, that the reason is, that the Unix time stamps returned by the date time objects are unsigned integers (which strikes me as an odd choice anyways, since they are also 64 bit) and you implicitly cast them into a signed integer carrying over an integer overflow? So maybe try casting them into signed integers before or just sort out min/max conditions before.
Cheers
zipit -
Now that you mention it, I just noticed it, too.
I guess that was my daily dose of shame....
remainingDaysStamp
needs to be Int64, not UInt64.Thank you so much, that brought me back on track!
Cheers,
Frank -
Hi,
jeah, oops, I somehow red
remainingDaysStamp
as beingInt64
, mixing it up withdaysDifference
below. This is a straight up integer overflow. But I am not quite sure if changingremainingDaysStamp
will be enough, you might have to convert your operand values to signed integers. At least in older versions of C# the compiler behaved that way (trying to implicitly castint my_int = smaller_uint - bigger_uint;
gave you the overflow value).Cheers
zipit -
I got it working now. Thank you!
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Hi Frank, looks like I came too late here
Thanks @zipit and @fwilleke80 for running the conversation.
Couple of notes:- do all the maths by using the UniversalDateTime as pointed in our documentation: I don't see any major advance to use the LocalDateTime
- use the maxon::UniversalDateTime::FromValues() to convert from year, month, day, hour, min, sec to maxon::UniversalDateTime representation
- in case also hours, mins and secs difference gets interesting you can easily extend the code to consider those differences
- consider that otherDate shouldn't be necessarily bigger than currentDate
- make proper use of error handling.
Below my suggested version
iferr_scope; // get the current time in UniversalDateTime const maxon::UniversalDateTime currentUDate(maxon::UniversalDateTime::GetNow()); // get the other time in UniversalDateTime const maxon::UniversalDateTime otherUDate = maxon::UniversalDateTime::FromValues(2019, 10, 01, 00, 00, 00) iferr_return; // compute the timestamp difference between the twos UInt64 utDifference = 0; if (currentUDate > otherUDate) utDifference = currentUDate.GetUnixTimestamp() - otherUDate.GetUnixTimestamp(); else utDifference = otherUDate.GetUnixTimestamp() - currentUDate.GetUnixTimestamp(); // allocate some conversion factors const Float toMin = 60; const Float toHour = 60 * toMin; const Float toDay = 24.0 * toHour; // compute the respective temporal differences const UInt days = UInt(utDifference / toDay); const UInt hours = UInt((utDifference - days * toDay) / toHour); const UInt mins = UInt((utDifference - days * toDay - hours * toHour) / toMin); const UInt secs = UInt(utDifference - days * toDay - hours * toHour - mins * toMin); // just print if (currentUDate > otherUDate) DiagnosticOutput("Difference between @ and @ is \n\t@ days\n\t@ hours\n\t@ mins\n\t@ secs", currentUDate, otherUDate, days, hours, mins, secs); else DiagnosticOutput("Difference between @ and @ is \n\t@ days\n\t@ hours\n\t@ mins\n\t@ secs", otherUDate, currentUDate, days, hours, mins, secs); return maxon::OK;
Cheers, R
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Thank you, Ricardo!