TTime Class Reference

Default constructor.

The object is initialised to an arbitrary value.

Constructs the object from a 64-bit microsecond value.

Constructs a TTime object with a text string.

The string consists of up to three components, any or all of which may be omitted:

1. year, month and day, followed by a colon

2. hour, minute and second, followed by a dot

3. microsecond

When all three components are present, the string should take the form:

YYYYMMDD:HHMMSS.MMMMMM

The conversion from text to time is carried out in the same manner as that used in TTime::Set().

For a list of the range of valid values for date and time components, see TDateTime::Set().

See also: TTime::Set TDateTime::Set

Constructs a TTime object with the seven fields which comprise a date and time.

Converts the TTime object into a TDateTime object.

This conversion must be done before the seven fields which comprise a date and time can be accessed.

Gets the day number in the month.

Gets the day number within the current week.

This is a value in the range zero to six inclusive, and honours the setting specified in TLocale::SetStartOfWeek().

By default the first day in the week is Monday.

See also: TLocale::SetStartOfWeek

Gets the day number in the year.

Gets the day number in the year when the start of the year is aStartDate.

If no start date is specified, the default is January 1st.

Calculates the number of days difference between the specified TTime and this TTime.

The difference may be positive or negative.

Gets the number of days in the current month.

Puts this TTime into a descriptor and formats it according to the format string specified in the second argument.

Many of the formatting commands use the system's locale settings for the date and time, for example the characters used to separate components of the date and time and the ordering of day, month and year. The list of formatting commands below is divided into two sections, the first of which lists the commands which operate without reference to the locale's date and time settings (see class TLocale) and the second table lists the commands which do use these settings.

The following formatting commands do not honour the locale-specific system settings:

%% : Include a single '' character in the string

%* : Abbreviate following item (the following item should not be preceded by a '' character).

%C : Interpret the argument as the six digit microsecond component of the time. In its abbreviated form, ('%*C') this should be followed by an integer between zero and six, where the integer indicates the number of digits to display.

%D : Interpret the argument as the two digit day number in the month. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%E : Interpret the argument as the day name. Abbreviation is language-specific (e.g. English uses the first three letters).

%F : Use this command for locale-independent ordering of date components. This orders the following day/month/year component(s) (%D, %M, %Y for example) according to the order in which they are specified in the string. This removes the need to use %1 to %5 (described below).

%H : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit hour component of the time in 24 hour time format. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero. For locale-dependent hour formatting, use %J.

%I : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit hour component of the time in 12 hour time format. The leading zero is automatically suppressed so that abbreviation has no effect. For locale-dependent hour formatting, use %J.

%M : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit month number. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%N : Interpret the argument as the month name. Abbreviation is language specific, e.g. English uses the first three letters only. When using locale-dependent formatting, (that is, %F has not previously been specified), specifying %N causes any subsequent occurrence of a month specifier in the string to insert the month as text rather than in numeric form. When using locale-independent formatting, specifying %N causes the month to be inserted as text at that position, but any subsequent occurrence of %M will cause the month to be inserted in numeric form.

%S : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit seconds component of the time. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%T : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit minutes component of the time. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%W : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit week number in year. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%X : Interpret the argument as the date suffix. Cannot be abbreviated. When using locale-dependent formatting (that is, %F has not previously been specified), %X causes all further occurrences of the day number to be displayed with the date suffix. When using locale-independent formatting, a date suffix will be inserted only after the occurrence of the day number which %X follows in the format string. Any further occurrence of %D without a following %X will insert the day number without a suffix.

%Y : Interpret the argument as the four digit year number. Abbreviation suppresses the first two digits.

%Z : Interpret the argument as the one, two or three digit day number in the year. Abbreviation suppresses leading zeros.

The following formatting commands do honour the locale-specific system settings:

%. : Interpret the argument as the decimal separator character (as set by TLocale::SetDecimalSeparator()). The decimal separator is used to separate seconds and microseconds, if present.

%: : Interpret the argument as one of the four time separator characters (as set by TLocale::SetTimeSeparator()). Must be followed by an integer between zero and three inclusive to indicate which time separator character is being referred to.

%/ : Interpret the argument as one of the four date separator characters (as set by TLocale::SetDateSeparator()). Must be followed by an integer between zero and three inclusive to indicate which date separator character is being referred to.

%1 : Interpret the argument as the first component of a three component date (i.e. day, month or year) where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean, this is the day, when EDateAmerican, the month, and when EDateJapanese, the year. For more information on this and the following four formatting commands, see the Notes section immediately below.

%2 : Interpret the argument as the second component of a three component date where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean, this is the month, when EDateAmerican, the day and when EDateJapanese, the month.

%3 : Interpret the argument as the third component of a three component date where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean, or EDateAmerican this is the year and when EDateJapanese, the day.

%4 : Interpret the argument as the first component of a two component date (day and month) where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean this is the day, and when EDateAmerican or EDateJapanese, the month.

%5 : Interpret the argument as the second component of a two component date (day and month) where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean this is the month, and when EDateAmerican or EDateJapanese, the day.

%A : Interpret the argument as "am" or "pm" text according to the current language and time of day. Unlike the %B formatting command (described below), %A disregards the locale's 12 or 24 hour clock setting, so that when used without an inserted + or - sign, am/pm text will always be displayed. Whether a space is inserted between the am/pm text and the time depends on the locale-specific settings. However, if abbreviated (%*A), no space is inserted, regardless of the locale's settings. The am/pm text appears before or after the time, according to the position of the %A, regardless of the locale-specific settings. For example, the following ordering of formatting commands causes am/pm text to be printed after the time: %H %T %S %A. Optionally, a minus or plus sign may be inserted between the "%" and the "A". This operates as follows:

%-A causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleBefore. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk.

%+A causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk. For example, the following formatting commands will cause am/pm text to be displayed after the time if the am/pm position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter or before the time if ELocaleBefore: %-A %H %T %S %+A.

%B Interpret the argument as am or pm text according to the current language and time of day. Unlike the %A command, when using %B, am/pm text is displayed only if the clock setting in the locale is 12-hour. Whether a space is inserted between the am/pm text and the time depends on the locale-specific settings. However, if abbreviated (%*B), no space is inserted, regardless of the locale's settings. The am/pm text appears before or after the time, according to the location of the "%B", regardless of the locale-specific settings. For example, the following formatting commands cause am/pm text to be printed after the time: %H %T %S %B. Optionally, a minus or plus sign may be inserted between the "%" and the "B". This operates as follows:

%-B causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if using a 12 hour clock and the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleBefore. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk.

%+B causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if using a 12 hour clock and the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk. For example, the following formatting commands cause am/pm text to be printed after the time if the am/pm position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter or before the time if ELocaleBefore: %-B %H %T %S %+B.

%J Interpret the argument as the hour component of the time in either 12 or 24 hour clock format depending on the locale's clock format setting. When the clock format has been set to 12 hour, leading zeros are automatically suppressed so that abbreviation has no effect. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero only when using a 24 hour clock.

Notes:

The %1, %2, %3, %4 and %5 formatting commands are used in conjunction with %D, %M and %Y to format the date locale-dependently. When formatting the date locale-dependently, the order of the day, month and year components within the string is determined by the order of the %1 to %5 formatting commands, not that of %D, %M, %Y.

When formatting the date locale-independently (that is, %F has been specified in the format string), the %1 to %5 formatting commands are not required, and should be omitted. In this case, the order of the date components is determined by the order of the %D, %M, %Y format commands within aFormat.

Up to four date separators and up to four time separators can be used to separate the components of a date or time. When formatting a numerical date consisting of the day, month and year or a time containing hours, minutes and seconds, all four separators should always be specified in the format command string. Usually, the leading and trailing separators should not be displayed. In this case, the first and fourth separators should still be specified, but should be represented by a null character.

The date format follows the pattern:

DateSeparator[0] DateComponent1 DateSeparator[1] DateComponent2 DateSeparator[2] DateComponent3 DateSeparator[3]

where the ordering of date components is determined by the locale's date format setting.

The time format follows the pattern:

TimeSeparator[0] Hours TimeSeparator[1] Minutes TimeSeparator[2] Seconds TimeSeparator[3]

If the time includes a microseconds component, the third separator should occur after the microseconds, and the seconds and microseconds should be separated by the decimal separator. When formatting a two component time, the following rules apply:

if the time consists of hours and minutes, the third time delimiter should be omitted

if the time consists of minutes and seconds, the second time delimiter should be omitted

Puts this TTime into a descriptor and formats it according to the format string specified in the second argument.

Many of the formatting commands use the system's locale settings for the date and time, for example the characters used to separate components of the date and time and the ordering of day, month and year. The list of formatting commands below is divided into two sections, the first of which lists the commands which operate without reference to the locale's date and time settings (see class TLocale) and the second table lists the commands which do use these settings.

The following formatting commands do not honour the locale-specific system settings:

%% : Include a single '' character in the string

%* : Abbreviate following item (the following item should not be preceded by a '' character).

%C : Interpret the argument as the six digit microsecond component of the time. In its abbreviated form, ('%*C') this should be followed by an integer between zero and six, where the integer indicates the number of digits to display.

%D : Interpret the argument as the two digit day number in the month. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%E : Interpret the argument as the day name. Abbreviation is language-specific (e.g. English uses the first three letters).

%F : Use this command for locale-independent ordering of date components. This orders the following day/month/year component(s) (%D, %M, %Y for example) according to the order in which they are specified in the string. This removes the need to use %1 to %5 (described below).

%H : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit hour component of the time in 24 hour time format. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero. For locale-dependent hour formatting, use %J.

%I : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit hour component of the time in 12 hour time format. The leading zero is automatically suppressed so that abbreviation has no effect. For locale-dependent hour formatting, use %J.

%M : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit month number. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%N : Interpret the argument as the month name. Abbreviation is language specific, e.g. English uses the first three letters only. When using locale-dependent formatting, (that is, %F has not previously been specified), specifying %N causes any subsequent occurrence of a month specifier in the string to insert the month as text rather than in numeric form. When using locale-independent formatting, specifying %N causes the month to be inserted as text at that position, but any subsequent occurrence of %M will cause the month to be inserted in numeric form.

%S : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit seconds component of the time. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%T : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit minutes component of the time. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%W : Interpret the argument as the one or two digit week number in year. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero.

%X : Interpret the argument as the date suffix. Cannot be abbreviated. When using locale-dependent formatting (that is, %F has not previously been specified), %X causes all further occurrences of the day number to be displayed with the date suffix. When using locale-independent formatting, a date suffix will be inserted only after the occurrence of the day number which %X follows in the format string. Any further occurrence of %D without a following %X will insert the day number without a suffix.

%Y : Interpret the argument as the four digit year number. Abbreviation suppresses the first two digits.

%Z : Interpret the argument as the one, two or three digit day number in the year. Abbreviation suppresses leading zeros.

The following formatting commands do honour the locale-specific system settings:

%. : Interpret the argument as the decimal separator character (as set by TLocale::SetDecimalSeparator()). The decimal separator is used to separate seconds and microseconds, if present.

%: : Interpret the argument as one of the four time separator characters (as set by TLocale::SetTimeSeparator()). Must be followed by an integer between zero and three inclusive to indicate which time separator character is being referred to.

%/ : Interpret the argument as one of the four date separator characters (as set by TLocale::SetDateSeparator()). Must be followed by an integer between zero and three inclusive to indicate which date separator character is being referred to.

%1 : Interpret the argument as the first component of a three component date (i.e. day, month or year) where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean, this is the day, when EDateAmerican, the month, and when EDateJapanese, the year. For more information on this and the following four formatting commands, see the Notes section immediately below.

%2 : Interpret the argument as the second component of a three component date where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean, this is the month, when EDateAmerican, the day and when EDateJapanese, the month.

%3 : Interpret the argument as the third component of a three component date where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean, or EDateAmerican this is the year and when EDateJapanese, the day.

%4 : Interpret the argument as the first component of a two component date (day and month) where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean this is the day, and when EDateAmerican or EDateJapanese, the month.

%5 : Interpret the argument as the second component of a two component date (day and month) where the order has been set by TLocale::SetDateFormat(). When the date format is EDateEuropean this is the month, and when EDateAmerican or EDateJapanese, the day.

%A : Interpret the argument as "am" or "pm" text according to the current language and time of day. Unlike the %B formatting command (described below), %A disregards the locale's 12 or 24 hour clock setting, so that when used without an inserted + or - sign, am/pm text will always be displayed. Whether a space is inserted between the am/pm text and the time depends on the locale-specific settings. However, if abbreviated (%*A), no space is inserted, regardless of the locale's settings. The am/pm text appears before or after the time, according to the position of the %A, regardless of the locale-specific settings. For example, the following ordering of formatting commands causes am/pm text to be printed after the time: %H %T %S %A. Optionally, a minus or plus sign may be inserted between the "%" and the "A". This operates as follows:

%-A causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleBefore. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk.

%+A causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk. For example, the following formatting commands will cause am/pm text to be displayed after the time if the am/pm position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter or before the time if ELocaleBefore: %-A %H %T %S %+A.

%B Interpret the argument as am or pm text according to the current language and time of day. Unlike the %A command, when using %B, am/pm text is displayed only if the clock setting in the locale is 12-hour. Whether a space is inserted between the am/pm text and the time depends on the locale-specific settings. However, if abbreviated (%*B), no space is inserted, regardless of the locale's settings. The am/pm text appears before or after the time, according to the location of the "%B", regardless of the locale-specific settings. For example, the following formatting commands cause am/pm text to be printed after the time: %H %T %S %B. Optionally, a minus or plus sign may be inserted between the "%" and the "B". This operates as follows:

%-B causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if using a 12 hour clock and the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleBefore. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk.

%+B causes am/pm text to be inserted into the descriptor only if using a 12 hour clock and the am/pm symbol position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter. Cannot be abbreviated using asterisk. For example, the following formatting commands cause am/pm text to be printed after the time if the am/pm position has been set in the locale to ELocaleAfter or before the time if ELocaleBefore: %-B %H %T %S %+B.

%J Interpret the argument as the hour component of the time in either 12 or 24 hour clock format depending on the locale's clock format setting. When the clock format has been set to 12 hour, leading zeros are automatically suppressed so that abbreviation has no effect. Abbreviation suppresses leading zero only when using a 24 hour clock.

Notes:

The %1, %2, %3, %4 and %5 formatting commands are used in conjunction with %D, %M and %Y to format the date locale-dependently. When formatting the date locale-dependently, the order of the day, month and year components within the string is determined by the order of the %1 to %5 formatting commands, not that of %D, %M, %Y.

When formatting the date locale-independently (that is, %F has been specified in the format string), the %1 to %5 formatting commands are not required, and should be omitted. In this case, the order of the date components is determined by the order of the %D, %M, %Y format commands within aFormat.

Up to four date separators and up to four time separators can be used to separate the components of a date or time. When formatting a numerical date consisting of the day, month and year or a time containing hours, minutes and seconds, all four separators should always be specified in the format command string. Usually, the leading and trailing separators should not be displayed. In this case, the first and fourth separators should still be specified, but should be represented by a null character.

The date format follows the pattern:

DateSeparator[0] DateComponent1 DateSeparator[1] DateComponent2 DateSeparator[2] DateComponent3 DateSeparator[3]

where the ordering of date components is determined by the locale's date format setting.

The time format follows the pattern:

TimeSeparator[0] Hours TimeSeparator[1] Minutes TimeSeparator[2] Seconds TimeSeparator[3]

If the time includes a microseconds component, the third separator should occur after the microseconds, and the seconds and microseconds should be separated by the decimal separator. When formatting a two component time, the following rules apply:

if the time consists of hours and minutes, the third time delimiter should be omitted

if the time consists of minutes and seconds, the second time delimiter should be omitted

Sets the date and time of this TTime to the home time.

Sets the date and time of this TTime to the secure home time. Returns KErrNoSecureTime if there is no secure time source

Calculates the number of hours difference between the specified TTime and this TTime.

The difference may be positive or negative.

Gets the 64 bit integer representation of this TTime obect.

Calculates the number of microseconds difference between the specified TTime and this TTime.

Calculates the number of minutes difference between the specified TTime and this TTime.

The difference may be positive or negative.

Calculates the number of months between the specified TTime and this TTime.

The result may be positive or negative.

The interval in months between two TTimes is calculated by incrementing it by one each time the same day number and time in the previous or following month has been reached. Exceptions to this rule occur when this TTime is on the last day of the month. In this case, the following rules apply:

When comparing this TTime with a later time:

1. if the following month is shorter, one month is deemed to separate the times when the same time on the last day of the following month is reached. In this case, the two day numbers are not the same.

When comparing this TTime with an earlier time:

1. if the previous month is shorter, one month is deemed to separate the times when the last microsecond of the previous month is reached (23:59:59.999999 on the last day of the month).

2. if the previous month is longer, one month is deemed to separate the times when the same time on the last day of previous month is reached. In this case, the two day numbers are not the same.

Parses a descriptor containing either or both a date and time, and sets this TTime to the value of the parsed descriptor.

The descriptor may contain the date only, the time only, the date followed by the time, or the time followed by the date. When both the date and time are specified in the descriptor, they should be separated using one or more space characters.

Leading zeros and spaces preceding any time or date components are discarded.

Dates may be specified either with all three components (day, month and year), or with just two components; for example month and day. The date suffix ("st" "nd" "rd" or "th") may not be included in the descriptor.

The date and its components may take different forms:

1. The month may be represented by text or by numbers.

2 European (DD/MM/YYYY), American (MM/DD/YYYY) and Japanese (YYYY/MM/DD) date formats are supported. An exception to this ordering of date components occurs when European or American formatting is used and the month is represented by text. In this case, the month may be positioned in either the first or second field. When using Japanese date format, the month, whether text or numbers, must always be the second field.

3. The year may be two or four digits. When the year is a two digit number, (e.g. 97 rather than 1997), to resolve any confusion as to which century the year falls in, the second argument determines the century. For example, if the current year is 1997, a value for aCenturyOffset of 20 means that any two digit year will resolve to a year in the range 1920 to 2019. In this case, two digit years between 00 and 19 inclusive refer to the years between 2000 and 2019 and two digit years between 20 and 99 inclusive refer to the years between 1920 and 1999. By default, two digit years are in the current century (aCenturyOffset = 0).

If a colon or a dot has been specified in TLocale as the date separator character, neither may be used as date separators in this function.

If specified, the time must include the hour, but both minutes and seconds, or seconds alone may be omitted.

The time and its components may take different forms:

1. An am/pm time suffix may be appended to the time. If 24 hour clock format is in use, this text will be ignored.

2. The am/pm suffix may be abbreviated to "a" or "p".

3. Any of the following characters may be used as the time separator::(colon) .(dot) or either of the time separator characters specified in TLocale::SetDateSeparator() (at index 1 or 2). Other characters are illegal.

When a character can be interpreted as either a date or time separator character, this function will interpret it as a date separator.

Look out for cases in which wrongly interpreting the contents of a descriptor, based on the interpretation of separator characters, causes an error. For example, trying to interpret "5.6.1996" as a time is invalid and will return an error of -2 because 1,996 seconds is out of range.

Notes:

1. The entire content of the descriptor must be valid and syntactically correct, or an error will be returned and the parse will fail. So, excepting whitespace, which is discarded, any trailing characters within the descriptor which do not form part of the date or time are illegal.

2. If no time is specified in the descriptor, the hours, minutes and seconds of this TTime are all set to zero, corresponding to midnight at the start of the day specified in the date. If no date is specified, each of this TTime's date components are set to zero.

Rounds this TTime up to the next minute.

Both the seconds and microseconds components are set to zero.

Calculates the number of seconds difference between the specified TTime and this TTime.

The difference may be positive or negative.

Assigns a date and time contained in a descriptor to this TTime object.

The string consists of up to three components, any or all of which may be omitted:

1. year, month and day, followed by a colon

2. hour, minute and second, followed by a dot

3. microsecond

When all three components are present, the string should take the form:

YYYYMMDD:HHMMSS.MMMMMM

If omitted, the first component defaults to 1 January, year 0 (nominal Gregorian). This is the base date for TTime, so the result of this method will be the number of microseconds in the time specified by the second and third components.

If either the second or third components are omitted, they are set to zero.

Notes:

1. The month and day values are offset from zero.

2. The only situations in which either the colon or dot may be omitted are as follows:

2.1 If the microsecond component is omitted, the preceding dot may also be omitted.

2.2 The colon can be omitted only if a dot is located at string position zero (indicating that the first two components are missing), or at string position six (indicating that the first component only is missing).

Sets the date and time of this TTime to the universal time.

Sets the date and time of this TTime to the secure universal time.

Gets the number of the current week in the year.

Gets the number of the current week in the year when the year starts on aStartDate.

Finds the number of the current week in the year using the first week rule specified in aRule.

Finds the number of the current week in the year when the year starts from aStartDate and when using the start week rule aRule.

Calculates the number of years between the specified TTime and this TTime.

The result may be positive or negative.

Note that the interval in years between two TTimes is calculated by incrementing it by one each time the same day number and time in the previous or following year has been reached. The exception to this rule occurs when this TTime is the last day in February in a leap year. In this case, one year is deemed to have passed when the same time of day on the last day in the preceding or following February has been reached.