What type of data is time?

[twenty_sleven]

After checking out the internets it seemed to be class data, being that Scar has times separated by... well, colons. Unfortunately, in order to do proper "if" statements I need to know it's correct variable (String doesn't cut it! >.<)

 

program New;
var
  sCurrentTime: String;
begin
sCurrentTime:=    TimeToStr(Now);
WriteLn(TimeToStr(Now));
if
 sCurrentTime < 9:15:40 AM then
    WriteLn('Zomgosh it works!  ');
 end.
end.

[FHannes]

Now returns a TDateTime timestamp, which is a double, so why not just compare those?

[twenty_sleven]

I tried using a double value to hold it and it always returned... 12:00:00 AM.

 

program New;
var
  sCurrentTime: String;
  dTime: Double;
begin
sCurrentTime:=    TimeToStr(Now);
WriteLn(TimeToStr(Now));
WriteLn(sCurrentTime);
WriteLn(TimeToStr(dTime));

end.

 

With output of...

 

Successfully compiled (32 ms)
9:32:53 PM
9:32:53 PM
12:00:00 AM
Successfully executed (15 ms)

 

When trying dTime = TimeToStr(Now) It returned a type Mismatch (as it should) I simply want to be able to hold the value of the current time and compare it to another easily, would I have to break the string down to 9,32,53 and then rate it against another double? Thanks

[FHannes]

Obviously... You have to actually store something in it first... And also, you can't compare a string to a number...

[twenty_sleven]

Now returns a TDateTime timestamp, which is a double, so why not just compare those?

 

I want to be able to have a function run at any time of the day. For example, make the computer return the time of day every 20 minutes between 8A.M to 2P.M... And I know I can't compare strings, And I tried using...

 

 
Mili := GetSystemTime;

ConvertTime(Mili,H,M,S);
WriteLn(H);
WriteLn(M);
WriteLn(S);

 

But for whatever reason that's calibrated off 2 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds or so... Sorry for the bucket of questions, always trying to learn!

[FHannes]

[wiki=GetSystemTime]GetSystemTime[/wiki] does not return the current time.

[twenty_sleven]

Mhmmm, right. So how would I go about converting a time of day (Military time works fine) into the double Timestamp of Now to compare the two?

[FHannes]

... Now returns a Double timestamp which represents the current time of day.

[twenty_sleven]

Yes, so the current time of day is 40951.8039540625... (7:18P.M) I want to to say... When Now = 7:20 (or is > 7:19 && < 7:21) that is does X. I tried the Normal TimetoStr(Now) and replaced Now with similar double values... but it just seems like some really complicated code. ha

[FHannes]

You can use DecodeTime to do calculations with individual time components:

 

[scar]var

Time1, Time2: TDateTime;

H, M, S1, S2, MS: Word;

 

begin

Time1 := Now;

Wait(2000);

Time2 := Now;

DecodeTime(Time1, H, M, S1, MS);

DecodeTime(Time2, H, M, S2, MS);

WriteLn('It is ' + IntToStr(S2 - S1) + ' seconds later than before the wait call.');

end.[/scar]