The Time Library contains functions and type definitions for time calculations in the UNIX time format which counts the number of seconds since the "epoch". This is very convenient for programs that work with time intervals: the difference between two UNIX time values is a real-time difference measured in seconds.

What is the epoch?
Originally it was defined as the beginning of 1970 GMT. (January 1, 1970 Julian day) GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, is a traditional term for the time zone in England.

The TimeStruct type is a structure type suitable for time and date storage.

Library Routines

• Time_dateToEpoch
• Time_epochToDate
• Time_dateDiff

Time_dateToEpoch

dim ts1 as TimeStruct
    Epoch as longint
...
' what is the epoch of the date in ts ?
epoch = Time_dateToEpoch(@ts1)

Time_epochToDate

dim ts2 as TimeStruct
    epoch as longint
...
' what date is epoch 1234567890 ?
epoch = 1234567890
Time_epochToDate(epoch,ts2)

Time_dateDiff

dim ts1, ts2 as TimeStruct
    diff as longint
...
' how many seconds between these two dates contained in ts1 and ts2 buffers?
diff = Time_dateDiff(ts1, ts2)

Library Example

Demonstration of Time library routines usage for time calculations in UNIX time format.

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program Time_Demo
  '*
  '* simple time structure
  '*
  structure TimeStruct
     dim ss as byte     ' seconds
     dim mn as byte     ' minutes
     dim hh as byte     ' hours
     dim md as byte     ' day in month, from 1 to 31
     dim wd as byte     ' day in week, monday=0, tuesday=1, .... sunday=6
     dim mo as byte     ' month number, from 1 to 12 (and not from 0 to 11 as with unix C time !)
     dim yy as word     ' year Y2K compliant, from 1892 to 2038
  end structure

  dim  ts1, ts2    as TimeStruct
       epoch, diff as longint

  main:
    ts1.ss = 0
    ts1.mn = 7
    ts1.hh = 17
    ts1.md = 23
    ts1.mo = 5
    ts1.yy = 2006

    '*
    '* what is the epoch of the date in ts ?
    '*
    epoch = Time_dateToEpoch(@ts1)      ' epoch = 1148404020

    '*
    '* what date is epoch 1234567890 ?
    '*

    epoch = 1234567890
    Time_epochToDate(epoch, @ts2)       ' ts2.ss = 30
                                       ' ts2.mn = 31
                                       ' ts2.hh = 23
                                       ' ts2.md = 13
                                       ' ts2.wd = 4
                                       ' ts2.mo = 2
                                       ' ts2.yy = 2009

    '*
    '* how much seconds between this two dates ?
    '*
    diff = Time_dateDiff(@ts1, @ts2)     ' diff = 86163870

  end.

TimeStruct type definition

  structure TimeStruct
     dim ss as byte     ' seconds
     dim mn as byte     ' minutes
     dim hh as byte     ' hours
     dim md as byte     ' day in month, from 1 to 31
     dim wd as byte     ' day in week, monday=0, tuesday=1, .... sunday=6
     dim mo as byte     ' month number, from 1 to 12 (and not from 0 to 11 as with unix C time !)
     dim yy as word     ' year Y2K compliant, from 1892 to 2038
  end structure