Absolute To Relative Time
- Gary Cane
Operator Menu Location: Time
Operator Bitmap:
Functional Description:
The Absolute to Relative Time operator converts a date/time fully defined with MM/DD/YYYY and HH:MM:SS into a relative representation consisting of the number of days and seconds since the epoch (midnight on December 31, 1999).
The operator has three inputs for the absolute date, including the year ( 
), month ( 
), and day ( 
). And three inputs for the absolute time, including the hour ( 
), minutes ( 
), seconds ( 
). If the time is represented in 12-hour mode, a seventh input 
is used to indicate if the time is before noon (AM) or after noon (PM). A LOW value represents AM and a HIGH value represents PM.
The operator has two outputs: the number of days ( 
) and seconds ( 
) since the epoch corresponding to the date/time represented by inputs, 
. The number-of-seconds output refers to the fractional part of a day and can range from 0 to 60x60x24-1=86,399.
Using a relative representation for a date/time is convenient for performing date arithmetic (e.g., finding the difference between two dates). An inverse operator is available to convert the relative date/time representation into an absolute one---see the Relative To Absolute Time operator.
User-Defined Properties:
Object Name. A string label that identifies the operator
Absolute Time Format. The time format represented by inputs 
; either 12-hour or 24-hour.
Comments: None.
See Also:
Relative To Absolute Time, Calendar, Time-of-Day Clock, Alarm Clock