We have Kernel.to_timeout, which returns this in milliseconds, but we don't have a general API. The implementation raises if the duration has months or years in it, because it is impossible to convert it to an absolute value without having a reference datetime attached to it. In such cases, you can achieve what you want using "DateTime.diff(DateTime.shift(dt, duration), dt)", so there is probably not a big reason for exposing an API for this.
On Sun, May 26, 2024 at 8:02 AM Wígny Almeida <wignyb...@gmail.com> wrote: > Following the recent proposals and work done around the new `Duration` > API, I wanted to propose having a function available for converting a > `Duration` into a specific time unit, returning a float value. > > I see this function being useful where in your system you want to work > with durations, but on inputs and outputs, you are required to convert this > duration into a more plain value. The examples I can think of are 1) having > an Ecto custom type that loads a value in seconds (or another unit) from > the database, converting it into a duration using `Duration.new!(second: > value)` and dumps a duration again into a value in seconds by calling > `Duration.to_float(duration, :second)` and 2) transforming a duration into > a plain number in Phoenix HTML inputs. > > Examples of similar APIs I could find are in the JavaScript > Temporal.Duration > <https://tc39.es/proposal-temporal/docs/duration.html#total> API or Ruby > ActiveSupport::Duration > <https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/Duration.html#method-i-in_days:~:text=in_days,%20in_hours,%20in_minutes,%20in_months,%20in_seconds,%20in_weeks,%20in_years> > . > > One challenge we may encounter when implementing this function is > calculating, for example, how many seconds there are in a year. For this, I > think we can rely on the Calendar APIs? > > Thoughts? > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "elixir-lang-core" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to elixir-lang-core+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elixir-lang-core/f11b73c0-b709-4fbe-94fe-f76412f7a14cn%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elixir-lang-core/f11b73c0-b709-4fbe-94fe-f76412f7a14cn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elixir-lang-core" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to elixir-lang-core+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elixir-lang-core/CAGnRm4KQ0wJ5PH%3DcOn6ev1Nr0iFZFC4gb3OjL65qKot0tXTQjg%40mail.gmail.com.
