Umm, that's interesting, Albert.
I'm not sure if I can use it in quite the way I would like but I'll check.
What I'm really after is the ability to show time outside the 24 hour clock.
Maybe that would be 2 days and 15 hours or just a number of hours/mins/secs
but not linked to a specific date or time "period".
So, maybe, 96 hours minus 20 hours would return either 3 days 4 hours or
76:00:00
To give a practical example, my database has song titles with their timings
(where known).
For most needs I can add up totals and come in under 24 hours with no
problem.
However, if I wanted to know how long it would take to listen to every song
or even every song by an artist then the 24 hour limit could easily be
breached.
It's not the most important thing in the world as there are ways around but
they're convoluted and, quite honestly, I'm too lazy if there's a quicker
way - and the ADD... functions are a real favourite of mine. I fully
understand the current 24 hour logic but it's not the only logic - if you
see what I mean!
Regards,
Alastair.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Albert Berry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "RBG7-L Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 10:45 PM
Subject: [RBG7-L] - Re: Time variable format
> Alastair, if you subtract DATETIME from DATETIME, you will get a DOUBLE
response of however many
> hours there are in the days you need. (Date format is DD/MM/YYYY)
>
> R>SET VAR vd1 DATETIME = '01/11/04 08:30:00'
>
> R>SET VAR vd2 DATETIME = '04/11/04 08:45:00'
>
> R>set var v3 DOUBLE = ((.vd2 - .vd1)/3600)
>
> R>show v v%
> Variable = Value Type
> ------------------ ------------------------------ --------
> vd1 = 01/11/0004 8:30:00 DATETIME
> vd2 = 04/11/0004 8:45:00 DATETIME
> v3 = 72.25 DOUBLE
>
>
>
> --- Alastair Burr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > It was the 32 seconds, or whatever, that _didn't_ temp me to mention the
24
> > hour limit in the first place.
> >
> > I like the idea of 96 o'clock... and, even more, the fact that the table
> > wont be ready for 3 1/2 days...
> >
> > Nevertheless, we do all say things like 48 hours or 96 hours, or
whatever.
> > There are ways around formatting the result of a number of hours (and
> > minutes/seconds) over the 24 but it's a bit of a pain when the info must
be
> > there in the first place to be able to subtract the whole number of days
and
> > leave only the remaining "time".
> >
> > I did think about saying that a new function and/or data type might be
> > needed but, sometimes, it's interesting to see what responses appear
without
> > any prompting. Unless a lot of people have the same problem - which I
> > doubt - I can't imagine a new data type being considered but a switch of
> > some sort on the "time" functions: default of zero or null = as is while
1 =
> > overall number of hours (plus the remaining mm:ss) might be worth
> > considering.
> >
> > Right back when I first started using v2.11 you could add/subtract times
and
> > get an integer result and, as you say, do the maths from that to get
days as
> > well as the time. The relatively recent addition of the ADD... functions
are
> > a really useful addition - especially if you're repetitively entering
> > figures from the numeric keypad - but the limit of 24 hours needs to be
> > taken care of if you're likely to breach it.
> >
> > Alternatively, an ADD function based on DateTime datatype in addition to
the
> > separate ones for Date and Time would overcome the current leap between
> > 23:59:59 and 1 day 00:00:01?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Alastair.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Lawrence Lustig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: "RBG7-L Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 4:33 PM
> > Subject: [RBG7-L] - Re: Time variable format
> >
> >
> > > > It's not often that I get "extremely clever approach" said about my
> > methods
> > > > <g> but there is one thing to watch out for and that is if the
elapsed
> > time
> > > > is more that 24 hours!
> > > >
> > > > Actually, it would be nice if there was a way that the time
fucntions
> > > > allowed the hours part of the time to exceed 24. I often want to add
up
> > > > times and reach the 24 hour barrier when displaying the results.
> > >
> > > From the original poster's example using 32 seconds, I figured we
could
> > ignore
> > > the possiblity of 24+ elapsed times.
> > >
> > > Ultimately, however, to express genuine time quantities in H:M:S
format
> > would
> > > require a NEW data type. The existing TIME datatype could _not_ be
> > expanded to
> > > go over 24 hours -- that would allow invalid data in genuine time
columns
> > ("I'm
> > > sorry sir, but our computer shows that your reservation was for 96
> > O'Clock, and
> > > the table won't be ready for 3 1/2 days!").
> > >
> > > In the meantime, you can calculate elapsed time in seconds and format
it
> > like
> > > this:
> > >
> > > SET VAR vElapsed INT = (.vEndTime - .vStartTime)
> > >
> > > SET VAR vElapsedFmt TEXT = +
> > > CTXT(INT(.vElapsed/3600)) + ':' + +
> > > CTXT(INT(MOD(.vElapsed, 3600)/60)) + ":" + +
> > > CTXT(MOD(MOD(.vElapsed, 3600), 60))
> > >
> > > (I think, that's top-of-my-head)
> > > --
> > > Larry
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
> =====
> Albert Berry
> Management Consultant
> RR2 - 1252 Ponderosa Drive
> Sparwood BC, V0B 2G2
> Canada
> (250) 425-5806
> (250) 425-7259
> (708) 575-3952 (fax)
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
