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**John Schexnaydre** · 3 Apr 2006, 02:36 PM

Search Poffs and these forums for API items, such as system time and GetDateFormat listed in the code below:

Code:

FUNCTION DateTimeStr (sysT AS SYSTEMTIME, DtFormat AS LONG,TmFormat AS LONG) AS STRING
  DIM zDate AS ASCIIZ * 32
  DIM zTime AS ASCIIZ * 32
  DIM DateFormat(13) AS LOCAL ASCIIZ * 32
  DIM TimeFormat(6) AS LOCAL ASCIIZ * 32

    DateFormat(1)  = "MM'/'dd'/'yy"           ' 02/18/01
    DateFormat(2)  = "MM'/'dd'/'yyyy"         ' 02/18/2001
    DateFormat(3)  = "MMM dd ''''yy"          ' Feb 18 '01
    DateFormat(4)  = "MMM d yyyy"             ' Feb 18 2001
    DateFormat(5)  = "MMMMM d',' yyyy"        ' February 18, 2001
    DateFormat(6)  = "ddd MM'/'dd'/'yy"       ' Sun 02/18/01
    DateFormat(7)  = "ddd MM'/'dd'/'yyyy"     ' Sun 02/18/2001
    DateFormat(8)  = "ddd MMM dd ''''yy"      ' Sun Feb 18 '01
    DateFormat(9)  = "ddd MMM d yyyy"         ' Sun Feb 18 2001
    DateFormat(10)  = "ddd MMM d yyyy"        ' Sun Feb 18 2001
    DateFormat(11) = "ddd',' dd MMM yyyy"     ' Sun, 18 Feb2001
    DateFormat(12) = "yyMMdd"                 ' 010218
    DateFormat(13) = "yyyyMMdd"               ' 20010218

    TimeFormat(1) = "HH':'mm"                 ' 15:18
    TimeFormat(2) = "HH':'mm':'ss"            ' 15:18:02
    TimeFormat(3) = "h':'mm tt"               ' 3:18 PM
    TimeFormat(4) = "h':'mm':'ss tt"          ' 3:18:02 PM
    TimeFormat(5) = "hh':'mm tt"              ' 03:18 PM
    TimeFormat(6) = "hh':'mm':'ss tt"         ' 03:18:02 PM

    IF DtFormat > 0 AND DtFormat < 14 THEN
        CALL GetDateFormat(%LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, %NULL,  sysT, DateFormat(DtFormat), zDate, 32)
    END IF

    IF TmFormat > 0 AND TmFormat < 7 THEN
       CALL GetTimeFormat(%LOCALE_USER_DEFAULT, %NULL, sysT, TimeFormat(TmFormat), zTime, 32)
    END IF

    IF DtFormat > 0 AND TmFormat > 0 THEN
        FUNCTION = zDate + "  " + zTime
      ELSE
        IF DtFormat& > 0 THEN
           FUNCTION = zDate
        ELSE
            FUNCTION = zTime
        END IF
    END IF

END FUNCTION

------------------

**Roy Cline** · 3 Apr 2006, 02:56 PM

Search for Julian Functions, day of week, etc it is all here.

------------------
Roy Cline

**Christopher Becker** · 3 Apr 2006, 03:24 PM

John, thanks for your fast reply and trying to help. Maybe this is a dumb
question and the answer is right in front of me, but I'm not sure you answered
my question. I was looking for a seamless timer, like the Unix timestamp.
The SYSTEMTIME structure -- at least, it appears to me -- has elements such as
Hour, Minute, Second, Year, Month, etc.

You can't take a variable that's been set to SYSTEMTIME and, for example,
add 86400 to it to see tomorrow's Month, Day, Year, etc. DateTimeStr() handles
the output just fine, but I also need the underlying mechanism that measures time.

If I've gotten this wrong, please post a code snippet. Given the current SYSTEMTIME,
how to use DateTimeStr() to see MM-DD-YYYY of the date five days ago?

You advised that I search Poffs. I don't know what that is. When I search for related
date/time problems, I see everyone seems to have their own unique solution, some of
which involve Julian Date calculations. I know Julian Dates make life easier just like
the Unix timestamp. But I want to avoid extensive re-coding and computing just to find
out five days ago was in March. Seems something like that should be packaged up
and standardized.

Again, if it's a dumb question, sorry.

------------------
Christopher Becker
Advanced Airborne Test Facility
Island of Kauai, Hawaii

[This message has been edited by Christopher Becker (edited April 03, 2006).]

**Christopher Becker** · 3 Apr 2006, 03:29 PM

Roy, you mean, in other words, re-code everything? I'm not trying to be
a jerk. But, of course, I can compute the Julian date and manipulate it.
But then what? I still need to code all of the output functions again.
I'm sure a Julian-to-calendar function exists somewhere, but now you're
talking all kinds of pieces that need to be packaged up and integrated.

I'm just surprised no one's made a clean, easy-to-use function like the
one I mentioned in my first post.

Or am I just way off base here?

------------------
Christopher Becker
Advanced Airborne Test Facility
Island of Kauai, Hawaii

**Mike Stefanik** · 3 Apr 2006, 03:45 PM

I don't have any PowerBASIC code handy, but I can describe what you need to do and give you some C code to work with.

Basically, the trick is to convert a SYSTEMTIME structure to a FILETIME structure (which is really a 64-bit integer), and then convert that to the standard UNIX 32-bit integer value.

You would call the SystemTimeToFileTime function in the Windows API to convert your SYSTEMTIME structure to a FILETIME value. Then you could use the following function:

Code:

long FileTimeToUnixTime(FILETIME *lpft)
{
    __int64 *qwft = (__int64 *)lpft;
    return (long)(((*qwft)/10000000)-11644473600);
}

To convert it back, you just reverse the process:

Code:

void UnixTimeToFileTime(long ut, FILETIME *lpft)
{
    __int64 qwft = (__int64)((ut + 11644473600) * 10000000);
    *lpft = (FILETIME *)qwft;
}

Of course, you'd want to actually check the paramters being passed and so on. If someone else isn't enterprising enough to convert this to PowerBASIC code, I'll take a stab at it later when I have some free time.

------------------
Mike Stefanik
www.catalyst.com
Catalyst Development Corporation

[This message has been edited by Mike Stefanik (edited April 03, 2006).]

**Christopher Becker** · 3 Apr 2006, 03:47 PM

Hoo-Rah!
That's exactly what I was looking for.
Still, would be nice to have built-in functions, but this will work.
Thanks.

------------------
Christopher Becker
Advanced Airborne Test Facility
Island of Kauai, Hawaii

**Roy Cline** · 3 Apr 2006, 03:49 PM

FILETIME

Contains a 64-bit value representing the number of 100-nanosecond intervals since January 1, 1601 (UTC).

typedef struct _FILETIME { DWORD dwLowDateTime; DWORD dwHighDateTime;
} FILETIME, *PFILETIME;

SYSTEMTIME

Specifies a date and time using individual members for the month, day, year, weekday, hour, minute, second, and millisecond.

typedef struct _SYSTEMTIME { WORD wYear; WORD wMonth; WORD wDayOfWeek; WORD wDay; WORD wHour; WORD wMinute; WORD wSecond; WORD wMilliseconds;
} SYSTEMTIME, *PSYSTEMTIME;
Members
wYear
The year (1601 - 30827).
wMonth
The month.

January = 1
February = 2
March = 3
April = 4
May = 5
June = 6
July = 7
August = 8
September = 9
October = 10
November = 11
December = 12

wDayOfWeek
The day of the week.

Sunday = 0
Monday = 1
Tuesday = 2
Wednesday = 3
Thursday = 4
Friday = 5
Saturday = 6

wDay
The day of the month (1-31).
wHour
The hour (0-23).
wMinute
The minute (0-59).
wSecond
The second (0-59).
wMilliseconds
The millisecond (0-999).
Remarks
It is not recommended that you add and subtract values from the SYSTEMTIME structure to obtain relative times. Instead, you should

Convert the SYSTEMTIME structure to a FILETIME structure.
Copy the resulting FILETIME structure to a ULARGE_INTEGER structure.
Use normal 64-bit arithmetic on the ULARGE_INTEGER value.

The system can periodically refresh the time by synchronizing with a time source. Because the system time can be adjusted either forward or backward, do not compare system time readings to determine elapsed time. Instead, use one of the methods described in Windows Time.

Well get the system time and cast it to filetime format.
Do your math,100-nanosecond intervals since January 1, 1601 (UTC).

------------------
Roy Cline

**Adam J. Drake** · 3 Apr 2006, 03:51 PM

here are some macros that clay clear posted to convert two dwords into a quad: http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...ad.php?t=23915

here is a function i built off of clay's code:

Code:

function makqud(dwlo as dword, dwhi as dword) as quad

    #register none

    local qret  as quad

    !pushad
    !cld
    !lea    edi, qret
    !mov    eax, dwlo
    !mov    eax, [eax]
    !stosd
    !mov    eax, dwhi
    !mov    eax, [eax]
    !stosd
    !popad

    function=qret

end function

------------------

**Clay Clear** · 3 Apr 2006, 04:54 PM

Christopher,

Calculating the date five days from now is easy with the WinAPI, too.

Code:

local q&&, x as systemtime

getsystemtimeasfiletime byval varptr(q)

q = q + (5 * 24 * 3600 * 10000000)

filetimetosystemtime byval varptr(q), x

date$ = format$(x.wmonth, "00") + "-" + format$(x.wday, "00") + "-" + format$(x.wyear)

EDIT: if you want the returned date in "verbose" form (e.g., "Monday, January 1, 2007"), then
look in the SDK for the GetDateFormat() API. This API will accept
a systemtime structure, like I used above.

------------------

[This message has been edited by Clay Clear (edited April 03, 2006).]

**Michael Mattias** · 3 Apr 2006, 05:22 PM

Code:

' add days courtesy p lamejn via:
'http://b]byref qft[/b]  ' override parameter two
  ...
  filetimetosystemtime [b]byref[/b] qft,st  ' override parameter one

**John Hackl** · 3 Apr 2006, 09:02 PM

Yes this has been discussed many times before. There are approximately an infinite number of ways to 'do' dates and times and there is no sense cluttering up the compiler with those functions for the rare times they are needed.

**Greg Lyon** · 3 Apr 2006, 11:13 PM

John,

This stuff may not be new or interesting to you, but it may be new
and interesting to someone else. Lighten-up man.

------------------
Greg

**Clay Clear** · 4 Apr 2006, 01:41 AM

Adam,

JFYI, the following should work, and would be a lot easier
than that old code I posted:

Code:

function makqud (byval dlow as dword, byval dhigh as dword) as quad
    #register none
    ! push dlow
    ! pop dword ptr function[0]
    ! push dhigh
    ! pop dword ptr function[4]
end function

------------------

**Christopher Becker** · 4 Apr 2006, 11:08 PM

Is it just me, or is this forum more hostile than others? I use other internet forums where people are eager to help and even hold the hands of newbies. But there are some users in this forum who seem too eager to criticize, offering little more than the equivalent of, “That’s a stupid question.”

John Hackl’s reply got me thinking. If my topic has been discussed many times before, maybe that should tell you something: it interests many people. And having a multitude of homemade solutions floating around - some in assembly - might be confusing to some. Seems to me the makers of the compiler might want to hear that. If you’re accustomed to PHP and Unix, these routines are hardly “clutter”.

And this isn’t the only thread where I’ve seen this. I’ve gotten lots of help in this forum, but I’ve also seen arrogance and condemnation for legitimate questions. Are the egos here really that big? They’ll answer questions with, “Look it up in win32api” or “Try this...” with a cryptic fragmented code snippet that the newbie can’t compile or understand. I recently tried to help a newbie only to have another member harshly criticize a typo in my code. This is the same guy who prides himself on finding the goofs in Star Wars movies. You’re not helping anyone.

Remind me of: “Answers are $10. Stupid looks are free.”

I guess I misunderstood the mission of this forum.

------------------
Christopher Becker
Advanced Airborne Test Facility
Island of Kauai, Hawaii

**Christopher Becker** · 4 Apr 2006, 11:21 PM

Forgot to say thanks to the replies that contained code and comments which answered my question.

------------------
Christopher Becker
Advanced Airborne Test Facility
Island of Kauai, Hawaii

**John Hackl** · 5 Apr 2006, 08:42 AM

How's this ?

I used to think that it would be good idea to have more date and time functions, but after a while realized how many there would need to be and how rarely the would be used, I changed my mind. I now believe that the compiler is better off WithOut extensive date and time functions. Take a look at how many date and time functions there are in VB or VBA.

No hostile words at all. There weren't any hostile words in my original post also.

[This message has been edited by John Hackl (edited April 05, 2006).]

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Unix-Like Time Functions: Wish List? Been done already?

Unix-Like Time Functions: Wish List? Been done already?

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