Develop Reference

Rounding time in Nodatime to nearest interval

We need to floor a time to the nearest arbitrary interval (represented by e.g. a Timespan or a Duration).
Assume for an example that we need to floor it to the nearest ten minutes.
e.g. 13:02 becomes 13:00 and 14:12 becomes 14:10
Without using Nodatime you could do something like this:
// Floor
long ticks = date.Ticks / span.Ticks;
return new DateTime( ticks * span.Ticks );
Which will use the ticks of a timespan to floor a datetime to a specific time.
It seems NodaTime exposes some complexity we hadn't considered before. You can write a function like this:
public static Instant FloorBy(this Instant time, Duration duration)
=> time.Minus(Duration.FromTicks(time.ToUnixTimeTicks() % duration.BclCompatibleTicks));
But that implementation doesn't seem correct.
"Floor to nearest ten minutes" seems to be dependent on timezone/offset of the time.
While might be 13:02 in UTC, in Nepal which has an offset of +05:45, the time would be 18:47.
This means that in UTC, flooring to the nearest ten minutes, would mean subtracting two minutes, while in Nepal, it would mean subtracting seven minutes.
I feel like I should be able to round a ZonedDateTime or an OffsetDateTime by an arbitrary timespan somehow. I can get close by writing a function like this
public static OffsetDateTime FloorToNearestTenMinutes(this OffsetDateTime time)
{
return time
.Minus(Duration.FromMinutes(time.Minute % 10))
.Minus(Duration.FromSeconds(time.Second));
}
but that doesn't allow me to specify an arbitrary duration, as the OffsetDateTime has no concept of ticks.
How do I round an Instant/ZonedDateTime/OffsetDateTime correctly, with an arbitrary interval, taking into account time zones?

For OffsetDateTime, I'd advise you to write a Func<LocalTime, LocalTime> which is effectively an "adjuster" in Noda Time terminology. You can then just use the With method:
// This could be a static field somewhere - or a method, so you can use
// a method group conversion.
Func<LocalTime, LocalTime> adjuster =>
new LocalTime(time.Hour, time.Minute - time.Minute % 10, 0);
// The With method applies the adjuster to just the time portion,
// keeping the date and offset the same.
OffsetDateTime rounded = originalOffsetDateTime.With(adjuster);
Note that this only works because your rounding will never change the date. If you need a version that can change date as well (e.g. rounding 23:58 to 00:00 of the next day) then you'd need to get the new LocalDateTime and construct a new OffsetDateTime with that LocalDateTime and the original offset. We don't have a convenience method for that, but it's just a matter of calling the constructor.
ZonedDateTime is fundamentally trickier due to the reasons you've given. Right now, Nepal doesn't observe DST - but it might do so in the future. Rounding near the DST boundary could take you into an ambiguous or even skipped time, potentially. That's why we don't provide a similar With method for ZonedDateTime. (In your case it isn't likely, although it's historically possibly... with date adjusters you could easily end up in this situation.)
What you could do is:
Call ZonedDateTime.ToOffsetDateTime
Round the OffsetDateTime as above
Call OffsetDateTime.InZone(zone) to get back to a ZonedDateTime
You could then check that the offset of the resulting ZonedDateTime is the same as the original, if you wanted to detect weird cases - but you'd then need to decide what to actually do about them. The behaviour is fairly reasonable though - if you start with a ZonedDateTime with a time portion of (say) 01:47, you'll end up with a ZonedDateTime in the same time zone from 7 minutes earlier. It's possible that wouldn't be 01:40, if a transition occurred within the last 7 minutes... but I suspect you don't actually need to worry about it.

I ended up taking some stuff from Jon Skeets answer and rolling my own Rounder that takes in an arbitrary Duration to round with. (Which was one of the key things I needed, which is also why I'm not accepting that answer).
Per Jons suggestion I convert the Instant to an OffsetDateTime and apply the rounder, which takes in an arbitrary duration. Example and implementation is below:
// Example of usage
public void Example()
{
Instant instant = SystemClock.Instance.GetCurrentInstant();
OffsetDateTime offsetDateTime = instant.WithOffset(Offset.Zero);
var transformedOffsetDateTime = offsetDateTime.With(t => RoundToDuration(t, Duration.FromMinutes(15)));
var transformedInstant = transformedOffsetDateTime.ToInstant();
}
// Rounding function, note that it at most truncates to midnight at the day.
public static LocalTime RoundToDuration(LocalTime timeToTransform, Duration durationToRoundBy)
{
var ticksInDuration = durationToRoundBy.BclCompatibleTicks;
var ticksInDay = timeToTransform.TickOfDay;
var ticksAfterRounding = ticksInDay % ticksInDuration;
var period = Period.FromTicks(ticksAfterRounding);
var transformedTime = timeToTransform.Minus(period);
return transformedTime;
}

For anyone interested here is my implementation, which correctly accounts for the occasions we cross a day, and always rounds up (rather than floors):
public static class RoundingExtensions
{
private static readonly Duration OneDay = Duration.FromDays(1);
public static LocalTime RoundUpToDuration(this LocalTime localDateTime, Duration duration)
{
if (duration <= Duration.Zero) return localDateTime;
var ticksInDuration = duration.BclCompatibleTicks;
var ticksInDay = localDateTime.TickOfDay;
var ticksAfterRounding = ticksInDay % ticksInDuration;
if (ticksAfterRounding == 0) return localDateTime;
// Create period to add ticks to get to next rounding.
var period = Period.FromTicks(ticksInDuration - ticksAfterRounding);
return localDateTime.Plus(period);
}
public static OffsetDateTime RoundUpToDuration(this OffsetDateTime offsetDateTime, Duration duration)
{
if (duration <= Duration.Zero) return offsetDateTime;
var result = offsetDateTime.With(t => RoundUpToDuration(t, duration));
if (OffsetDateTime.Comparer.Instant.Compare(offsetDateTime, result) > 0) result = result.Plus(OneDay);
return result;
}
public static ZonedDateTime RoundUpToDuration(this ZonedDateTime zonedDateTime, Duration duration)
{
if (duration <= Duration.Zero) return zonedDateTime;
var odt = zonedDateTime.ToOffsetDateTime().RoundUpToDuration(duration);
return odt.InZone(zonedDateTime.Zone);
}
}

Calculating time with hours and minutes only

I am attempting to create a timesheet calculator which takes calculates the time an employee works and I am close, with one problem.
As I perform the calculation, I only want hours and minutes to display. I am able to get that done, but that causes an issue. If the employee punches out before a full minute is elapsed, that minute is not included in the calculation.
For example, if an emp punches in at 12:00:30 and punches out at 5:00:29, that last minute is not counted in the calculation, so the time shows as 4:59 instead of 5:00.
How do I get the calculation to be based on the hours and minutes and exclude seconds completely?
This is the code I have:
private void btnPunchOut_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
DateTime stopTime = DateTime.Now;
lblPunchOutTime.Text = stopTime.ToShortTimeString();
TimeSpan timeWorked = new TimeSpan();
timeWorked = stopTime - startTime;
lblTimeWorked.Text = timeWorked.ToString(#"hh\:mm");
}

Use TimeSpan.TotalSeconds perhaps...And then add 30 seconds or more, before you convert it to hours by dividing by 3600.
As in
lblTimeWorked.Text = ((timeWorked.TotalSeconds+30)/3600).ToString("0.00") + " hours";
Use Timespan.TotalHours if you want the hours.
But if you want to be accurate, you should create a separate class dedicated to calculating the hours worked by a staff member. Then you can encapsulate lots of business rules in the dedicated class. Staff have entitlements and overtime, expenses or penalty rates - so this can get complex if done properly.

If you want a calculation that really ignores the seconds, the clearest way to accomplish that is to get rid of the seconds on both the start time and the end time. It might not seem accurate because it allows a difference of one second to become a difference of one minute. But that could still be a valid business rule, that you want to subtract according the the minutes that appeared on the clock rather than the actual elapsed seconds.
In other words,
1:00:01 is adjusted to 1:00:00.
1:00:59 is adjusted to 1:00:00.
1:01:00 is "adjusted" to 1:01:00.
1:01:01 is adjusted to 1:01:00.
You can accomplish that with an extension like this:
public static class TimespanExtensions
{
public static TimeSpan TrimToMinutes(this TimeSpan input)
{
return TimeSpan.FromMinutes(Math.Truncate(input.TotalMinutes));
}
}
(I'm sure there's a more efficient way of truncating the seconds, but at least this is clear.)
Now instead of having to figure out how to calculate the difference while rounding seconds or adding seconds, you just trim the seconds before calculating the difference. Here's a unit test:
[TestMethod]
public void NumberOfMinutesIgnoresSeconds()
{
var startTime = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(59).TrimToMinutes();
var endTime = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60).TrimToMinutes();
Assert.AreEqual(1, (endTime - startTime).TotalMinutes);
}
One Timespan represents 59 seconds, and the next one is 60, or the first second of the next minute. But if you trim the seconds and then calculate the difference you get exactly one minute.
In the context of your code,
DateTime stopTime = DateTime.Now;
lblPunchOutTime.Text = stopTime.ToShortTimeString();
var timeWorked = stopTime.TrimToMinutes() - startTime.TrimToMinutes();
lblTimeWorked.Text = timeWorked.ToString(#"hh\:mm");

intersection of two sets of data

I've been cracking my head over this algorithm for the past week and a half and i cant get it to work.
Basically i have an schedule (i know the Time value of the "borders")
and i have the red section (peoples movements in and out of the workplace). What i want is to know the time people spend at the workplace WITHIN their schedule, i dont care if they are there before or after work, or in the lunch break.
do you have any suggestions? on a mathematical theory or rule that i can apply here? or a similar problem you have seen you can point me to? i've been having a really hard time finding a solution. Any help would be appreciated.
For example:
Schedule:
7:30am (start) 12:00pm(lunchbreak)
1:30pm(endLunchBreak) 5:00pm(endOfWorkday)
People movements trough the day:
IN: 6:50am, OUT: 6:55am
IN: 7:00am, OUT: 11:45am
IN: 1:45pm, OUT: 5:05pm
So, my expected output would be a timespan of: 7:30 (it ignores time IN workplace outside of work schedule)

I would treat this as a state machine problem. There are four states: S+W+, S-W+, S+W-, S-W-.
Scheduled time corresponds to S+ states, worker present to W+ states. The objective is to add time in S+W+ to the intersection time.
The valid transitions are:
S+W+ End of schedule -> S-W+
S+W+ Worker leaves -> S+W-
S-W+ Start of schedule -> S+W+
S-W+ Worker leaves -> S-W-
S+W- End of schedule -> S-W-
S+W- Worker arrives -> S+W+
S-W- Start of schedule -> S+W-
S-W+ Worker arrives -> S-W+
Process events in time order, starting in state S-W-. If two events happen at the same time, process in either order.
On transition into S+W+, note the time. On transition out of S+W+, subtract the last noted time from the time of the transition, and add the result to the intersection time.

Break the day into 1440 one minute increments. This is your set space.
Set "S", the scheduled minutes, is a subset of that space.
Set "W", the amount of time spent on the job, is a subset of that space.
The intersection of "S" and "W" is the amount of time the person was there within their schedule (in minutes - convert to hh:mm per your needs).
Using other set algorithms you can find when they should have been there but weren't, etc.

You might want to look into using this library, but be careful, it completely ignores DateTime.Kind, is not time zone aware, and doesn't respect daylight saving time.
It is safe to use on Utc kinds.
Never use it on Local kinds.
If you use it on Unspecified kinds, make sure you understand what the context is. If it could possibly be a local time in some time zone that has DST, then your results may or may not be correct.
Other than that, you should be able to use its intersection function.

It sounds like LINQ should work well here. I've whipped up a short example, using my Noda Time library as it has better support for "time of day" than .NET, but you could adapt it if necessary.
The idea is basically that you have two collections of periods, and you're only interested in the intersection - you can find the intersection of any schedule period against any movement period - it's easy to discount periods that don't intersect by just using a 0-length period.
Here's the complete code, which does indeed give a total time of 7 hours and 30 minutes:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using NodaTime;
class Test
{
static void Main()
{
var schedule = new List<TimePeriod>
{
new TimePeriod(new LocalTime(7, 30), new LocalTime(12, 0)),
new TimePeriod(new LocalTime(13, 30), new LocalTime(17, 0)),
};
var movements = new List<TimePeriod>
{
new TimePeriod(new LocalTime(6, 50), new LocalTime(6, 55)),
new TimePeriod(new LocalTime(7, 0), new LocalTime(11, 45)),
new TimePeriod(new LocalTime(13, 45), new LocalTime(17, 05))
};
var durations = from s in schedule
from m in movements
select s.Intersect(m).Duration;
var total = durations.Aggregate((current, next) => current + next);
Console.WriteLine(total);
}
}
class TimePeriod
{
private readonly LocalTime start;
private readonly LocalTime end;
public TimePeriod(LocalTime start, LocalTime end)
{
if (start > end)
{
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("end");
}
this.start = start;
this.end = end;
}
public LocalTime Start { get { return start; } }
public LocalTime End { get { return end; } }
public Duration Duration { get { return Period.Between(start, end)
.ToDuration(); } }
public TimePeriod Intersect(TimePeriod other)
{
// Take the max of the start-times and the min of the end-times
LocalTime newStart = start > other.start ? start : other.start;
LocalTime newEnd = end < other.end ? end : other.end;
// When the two don't actually intersect, just return an empty period.
// Otherwise, return the appropriate one.
if (newEnd < newStart)
{
newEnd = newStart;
}
return new TimePeriod(newStart, newEnd);
}
}

Calculating how many minutes there are between two times

I have a datagridview in my application which holds start and finish times. I want to calculate the number of minutes between these two times. So far I have got:
var varFinish = tsTable.Rows[intCellRow]["Finish Time"];
TimeSpan varTime = (DateTime)varFinish - (DateTime)varValue;
int intMinutes = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(varTime);
But the last line won't compile because it says I am using invalid arguments for the Timespan constructor. I've researched quite a bit about how to calculate the number of minutes between two times, but I'm hitting a bit of a brick wall. Can someone please advise me on the best way to achieve my objective.
EDIT/
Now my code is as follows:
var varFinish = tsTable.Rows[intCellRow]["Finish Time"];
TimeSpan varTime = (DateTime)varFinish - (DateTime)varValue;
int intMinutes = (int)varTime.TotalMinutes;
But I am getting an invalid cast on the second line. Both varFinish and varValue are times e.g. 10:00 and 8:00 say. So not sure why they won't cast to type DateTime?

Try this
DateTime startTime = varValue
DateTime endTime = varTime
TimeSpan span = endTime.Subtract ( startTime );
Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (minutes): " + span.TotalMinutes );
Edit:
If are you trying 'span.Minutes', this will return only the minutes of timespan [0~59], to return sum of all minutes from this interval, just use 'span.TotalMinutes'.

double minutes = varTime.TotalMinutes;
int minutesRounded = (int)Math.Round(varTime.TotalMinutes);
TimeSpan.TotalMinutes: The total number of minutes represented by this instance.

In your quesion code you are using TimeSpan.FromMinutes incorrectly. Please see the MSDN Documentation for TimeSpan.FromMinutes, which gives the following method signature:
public static TimeSpan FromMinutes(double value)
hence, the following code won't compile
var intMinutes = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(varTime); // won't compile
Instead, you can use the TimeSpan.TotalMinutes property to perform this arithmetic. For instance:
TimeSpan varTime = (DateTime)varFinish - (DateTime)varValue;
double fractionalMinutes = varTime.TotalMinutes;
int wholeMinutes = (int)fractionalMinutes;

You just need to query the TotalMinutes property like this varTime.TotalMinutes

If the difference between endTime and startTime is greater than or equal to 60 Minutes , the statement:endTime.Subtract(startTime).Minutes; will always return (minutesDifference % 60). Obviously which is not desired when we are only talking about minutes (not hours here).
Here are some of the ways if you want to get total number of minutes(in different typecasts):
// Default value that is returned is of type *double*
double double_minutes = endTime.Subtract(startTime).TotalMinutes;
int integer_minutes = (int)endTime.Subtract(startTime).TotalMinutes;
long long_minutes = (long)endTime.Subtract(startTime).TotalMinutes;
string string_minutes = (string)endTime.Subtract(startTime).TotalMinutes;

Not allowing a user to put "Clock Out" time < "Clock In" time?

Public void Fee()
{
TimeSpan span1 = TimeSpan.FromHours(dtmIn.Value.Hour);
TimeSpan span2 = TimeSpan.FromHours(dtmOut.Value.Hour);
TimeSpan span3 = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(dtmIn.Value.Minute);
TimeSpan span4 = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(dtmOut.Value.Minute);
TimeSpan span5 = span2.Subtract(span1) + span4.Subtract(span3);
lblTotal.Text = (span5.TotalHours * 3).ToString("$#.00");
}
I do not want the user to be able to be able to clock in during PM and clock out during AM(basically overnight working). Also, not allowing the clock out time being before the clock in time.

You should call new TimeSpan(hours, minutes, seconds: 0) and check whether the in TimeSpan is > the out TimeSpan.

It appears from your code sample that dtmIn and dtmOut are nullable DateTime variables. If so, all you have to do is this:
if (dtmIn.Value >= dtmOut.Value)
{
//'in' time is equal to or greater than 'out' time
... show my error message ...
}
Of course you will need to ensure the DateTime? variables have a value (i.e. do appropriate error checking before using them in the expression).

You probably need to be a little more specific with your logic. Do you mean...
The user should be able to work overnight? If so, that means you need to check to make sure that the date they clocked in is the same as the date they clocked out. `
For example...
if (dtmIn.Value.Date != dtmOut.Value.Date)
{
...
}
The user should not be able to work more than 24 hours? If so, you should subtract the two dates and use the resulting TimeSpan to see how many days they worked.
For example...
if ((dtmOut.Value - dtmIn.Value).TotalDays > 1)
{
...
}
In neither case should you check the time explicitly. For one, if I worked 25 hours then my check out time would still be after the check in time.