19: Time Data Types and Procedures

by Will Fitzgerald

Status

This SRFI is currently in final status. Here is an explanation of each status that a SRFI can hold. To provide input on this SRFI, please send email to srfi-19@nospamsrfi.schemers.org. To subscribe to the list, follow these instructions. You can access previous messages via the mailing list archive.

Draft: 2000-02-28 to 2000-08-28
Final: 2000-08-31
Revised to fix errata:
- 2003-02-28 (Fixed reference implementation.)
- 2003-05-30 (Fixed documentation bug for ~D.)
- 2004-03-15 (Fixed various documentation bugs.)
- 2017-05-05 (Fixed definition of Julian Day and Modified Julian Day.)
- 2019-06-11 (Fixed week number definitions in Table 1. Note that this was an incompatible change to the API.)
- 2023-03-29 (Fixed return type of time-tai->time-utc and time-tai->time-utc!.)

Abstract

Points in time are represented as the number of seconds (with nanosecond precision) since "the epoch," a zero point in time. Several standard variants are defined, including UTC (universal coordinated time), TAI (international atomic time), and monotonic time. A point in time can also be represented as a Julian Day or Modified Julian Day number. Time durations, including time spent in a process or thread, are defined. Conversion routines are provided. The procedure CURRENT-TIME queries the current time in a specified variant, with a system-dependent resolution. Procedures for time arithmetic and time comparisons are also provided.

A date is a representation of a point in time in the Gregorian calendar, a 24 hour clock (with nanosecond precision) and a time zone offset from UTC. Procedures for converting between time and dates are provided, as well as for reading and writing string representations of dates.

Issues

[None currently]

Rationale

R5RS Scheme does not provide standard data types for time. This SRFI addresses this lack by specifying data types for time and associated procedures.

Specification

A Time object, which is distinct from all existing types, defines a point in time or a time duration in some standard time system. The standard time systems are:

Universal Coordinated Time (UTC),
International Atomic Time (TAI),
monotonic time (a monotonically increasing point in time from some epoch, which is implementation-dependent),
CPU time in current thread (implementation dependent),
CPU time in current process (implementation dependent),
Time duration.

Implementations are required to implement UTC, monotonic time, CPU time in current process, and time duration. Implementations are allowed to create extensions (for example, amount of time spent in garbage collection).

A time object consists of three components:

Time type, a symbol representing the time system representation used. The constants TIME-TAI, TIME-UTC, TIME-MONOTONIC, TIME-THREAD, TIME-PROCESS, and TIME-DURATION must be provided for these symbols. Implementations should provide constants for time type extensions.
Second, an integer representing the number of whole seconds from "the epoch."
Nanosecond, an integer of the number of nanoseconds in the fractional portion. Although a time object has nanosecond precision, clocks may have a lower resolution.

A Date object, which is distinct from all existing types, represents a point in time as represented by the Gregorian calendar as well as by a time zone. Dates are immutable. A date consists of the following components:

Nanosecond, an integer between 0 and 9,999,999, inclusive.
Second, an integer 0 and 60, inclusive, (60 represents a leap second)
Minute, an integer between 0 and 59, inclusive,
Hour, an integer between 0 and 23, inclusive,
Day, an integer between 0 and 31, inclusive, the upper limit depending on the month and year of the point in time,
Month, an integer between 1 and 12, inclusive; in which 1 means January, 2 February, and so on.
Year, an integer representing the year.
Time zone, an integer representing the number of seconds east of GMT for this timezone.

A Julian Day represents a point in time as a real number of days since -4713-11-24T12:00:00Z (midday UT on 24 November 4714 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar (1 January 4713 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar)).

A Modified Julian Day represents a point in time as a real number of days since 1858-11-17T00:00:00Z (midnight UT on 17 November AD 1858).

Constants

The following constants are required:

time-duration: Symbol representing Time duration.
time-monotonic: Symbol representing monotonic time.
time-process: Symbol representing time spent in current process.
time-tai: Symbol representing TAI time.
time-thread: Symbol representing time spent in current thread.
time-utc: Symbol representing UTC time.

Current time and clock resolution

The following procedures are required:

current-date [tz-offset] -> date: Date corresponding to the current UTC time.
current-julian-day -> jdn: Current Julian Day.
current-modified-julian-day -> mjdn: Current Modified Julian Day.
current-time [time-type] -> time: Current time, of type time-type system, which defaults to TIME-UTC.
time-resolution [time-type] -> integer: Clock resolution, in nanoseconds, of the system clock of type type time-type system, which defaults to TIME-UTC.

Time object and accessors

The following procedures are required:

make-time type nanosecond second -> time: Creates a time object.
time? object -> boolean: #t if object is a time object, otherwise, #f.
time-type time -> time-type: Time type.
time-nanosecond time -> integer: Time nanosecond.
time-second time -> integer: Time second.
set-time-type! time time-type: Changes time type. Note: This changes the semantics of the time object. To convert a time to another system of representation, use one of the conversion procedures.
set-time-nanosecond! time integer: Changes time nanosecond.
set-time-second! time integer: Changes time second.
copy-time time1 -> time2: Creates a new time object, with the same time type, nanosecond, and second as time1.

Time comparison procedures

All of the time comparison procedures require the time objects to be of the same type. It is an error to use these procedures on time objects of different types. For the point-in-time measurements (e.g., TIME-TAI and TIME-UTC), the semantics are described in plain text. For durations, (e.g., TIME-DURATION, TIME-CPU, the semantics are described in parentheses.

The following procedures are required:

time<=? time1 time2 -> boolean: #t if time1 is before or at (less than or equal to) time2, #f otherwise.
time<? time1 time2 -> boolean: #t if time1 is before (less than) time2, #f otherwise.
time=? time1 time2 -> boolean: #t if time1 at (equal) time2, #f otherwise.
time>=? time1 time2 -> boolean: #t if time1 is at or after (greater than or equal to) time2, #f otherwise.
time>? time1 time2 -> boolean: #t if time1 is after (greater than) time2, #f otherwise.

Time arithmetic procedures

The following procedures are required.

time-difference time1 time2 -> time-duration: The TIME-DURATION between time1 and time2. It is an error if time1 and time2 are of different time types. A new time object is created.
time-difference! time1 time2 -> time-duration: The TIME-DURATION between time1 and time2. It is an error if time1 and time2 are of different time types. Time1 may be used to create the resulting TIME-DURATION object.
add-duration time1 time-duration -> time: The time resulting from adding time-duration to time1, which is a time object of the same time type as time1. A new time object is created.
add-duration! time1 time-duration -> time: The time resulting from adding time-duration to time1, which is a time object of the same time type as time1. Time1 may used to create the resulting time object.
subtract-duration time1 time-duration -> time: The time resulting from subtracting time-duration from time1, which is a time object of the same time type as time1. A new time object is created.
subtract-duration! time1 time-duration -> time: The time resulting from subtracting time-duration from time1, which is a time object of the same time type as time1. Time1 may used to create the resulting time object.

Date object and accessors

Date objects are immutable once created. The following procedures are required.

make-date nanosecond second minute hour day month year zone-offset -> date: Creates a date object.
date? date -> boolean: #t if object is a time object, otherwise, #f.
date-nanosecond date -> integer: Date nanosecond.
date-second date -> integer: Date second.
date-minute date -> integer: Date minute.
date-hour date -> integer: Date hour.
date-day date -> integer: Date day.
date-month date -> integer: Date month.
date-year date -> integer: Date year.
date-zone-offset date -> integer: Date time zone offset.
date-year-day date -> integer: The ordinal day of the year of this date. January 1 is 1, etc.
date-week-day date -> integer: The day of the week of this date, where Sunday=0, Monday=1, etc.
date-week-number date day-of-week-starting-week -> integer: The ordinal week of the year which holds this date, ignoring a first partial week. 'Day-of-week-starting-week' is the integer corresponding to the day of the week which is to be considered the first day of the week (Sunday=0, Monday=1, etc.).

Time/Date/Julian Day/Modified Julian Day Converters

The following conversion procedures are required.

date->julian-day date -> jd: Convert date to Julian Day.
date->modified-julian-day date -> mjd: Convert date to Modified Julian Day.
date->time-monotonic date -> time-monotonic: Convert date to monotonic time.
date->time-tai date -> time-tai: Convert date to TAI time.
date->time-utc date -> time-utc: Convert date to UTC time.
julian-day->date jd [tz-offset] -> date: Convert Julian Day to date, , using time zone offset, which defaults to the local time zone.
julian-day->time-monotonic jd -> time-monotonic: Convert Julian Day to monotonic time.
julian-day->time-tai jd -> time-tai: Convert Julian Day to TAI time.
julian-day->time-utc jd -> time-utc: Convert Julian Day to UTC time.
modified-julian-day->date mjd [tz-offset] -> date: Convert Modified Julian Day to date, using time zone offset, which defaults to the local time zone.
modified-julian-day->time-monotonic mjd -> time-monotonic: Convert Modified Julian Day to monotonic time.
modified-julian-day->time-tai mjd -> time-tai: Convert Modified Julian Day to TAI time.
modified-julian-day->time-utc mjd -> time-utc: Convert Modified Julian Day to UTC time.
time-monotonic->date time-monotonic [tz-offset] -> date: Convert monotonic time to date, using time zone offset, which defaults to the local time zone.
time-monotonic->julian-day time-monotonic -> jd: Convert monotonic time to Julian Day.
time-monotonic->modified-julian-day time-monotonic -> mjd: Convert monotonic time to Modified Julian Day.
time-monotonic->time-tai time-monotonic -> time-tai: Convert monotonic time to TAI time.
time-monotonic->time-tai! time-monotonic -> time-tai: Convert monotonic time to TAI time. The time structure may be reused.
time-monotonic->time-utc time-monotonic -> time-utc: Convert monotonic time to UTC time.
time-monotonic->time-utc! time-monotonic -> time-utc: Convert monotonic time to UTC time. The time structure may be reused.
time-tai->date time-tai [tz-offset] -> date: Convert TAI time to date, using time zone offset, which defaults to the local time zone.
time-tai->julian-day time-tai -> jd: Convert TAI time to Julian Day.
time-tai->modified-julian-day time-tai -> mjd: Convert TAI time to Modified Julian Day.
time-tai->time-monotonic time-tai -> time-monotonic: Convert TAI time to monotonic time.
time-tai->time-monotonic! time-tai -> time-monotonic: Convert TAI time to monotonic time. The time structure may be reused.
time-tai->time-utc time-tai -> time-utc: Convert TAI time to UTC time.
time-tai->time-utc! time-tai -> time-utc: Convert TAI time to UTC time. The time structure may be reused.
time-utc->date time-utc [tz-offset] -> time-utc: Convert UTC time to date, using time zone offset, which defaults to the local time zone.
time-utc->julian-day time-utc -> jd: Convert UTC time to Julian Day
time-utc->modified-julian-day time-utc -> mjd: Convert UTC time to Modified Julian Day.
time-utc->time-monotonic time-utc -> time-monotonic: Convert UTC time to monotonic time.
time-utc->time-monotonic! time-utc -> time-monotonic: Convert UTC time to monotonic time. The time structure may be reused.
time-utc->time-tai time-utc -> time-tai: Convert UTC time to TAI time.
time-utc->time-tai! time-utc -> time-tai: Convert UTC time to TAI time. The time structure may be reused.

Date to String/String to Date Converters

These procedures provide conversion to and from strings. They are required. The specification below describes a 'locale;' the specification of locales is beyond this SRFI.

date->string date [format-string] -> string: Converts a date to a string, using the format string. The format string is copied as is; except escape characters (indicated by the tilde) are replaced with specific conversions. Table 1 lists the required conversion specifiers; implementations are free to extend this list.
string->date input-string template-string -> date: Converts an input string to a date, using the template string. The input string must match the template string as is; except escape characters (indicate by the tilde) indicate special converters which (1) move to the next character in the input string fulfilling a criterion; (2) read a value, and (3) act on this value in some way. Table 2 lists the required converters; implementations are free to extend this list.

Ch	Conversion


`~~`	a literal `~`
`~a`	locale's abbreviated weekday name (Sun...Sat)
`~A`	locale's full weekday name (Sunday...Saturday)
`~b`	locale's abbreviate month name (Jan...Dec)
`~B`	locale's full month day (January...December)
`~c`	locale's date and time (e.g., "Fri Jul 14 20:28:42-0400 2000")
`~d`	day of month, zero padded (01...31)
`~D`	date (mm/dd/yy)
`~e`	day of month, blank padded ( 1...31)
`~f`	seconds+fractional seconds, using locale's decimal separator (e.g. 5.2).
`~h`	same as ~b
`~H`	hour, zero padded, 24-hour clock (00...23)
`~I`	hour, zero padded, 12-hour clock (01...12)
`~j`	day of year, zero padded
`~k`	hour, blank padded, 24-hour clock ( 0...23)
`~l`	hour, blank padded, 12-hour clock ( 1...12)
`~m`	month, zero padded (01...12)
`~M`	minute, zero padded (00...59)
`~n`	new line
`~N`	nanosecond, zero padded
`~p`	locale's AM or PM
`~r`	time, 12 hour clock, same as "~I:~M:~S ~p"
`~s`	number of full seconds since "the epoch" (in UTC)
`~S`	second, zero padded (00...60)
`~t`	horizontal tab
`~T`	time, 24 hour clock, same as "~H:~M:~S"
`~U`	week number of year with Sunday as first day of week (00...53)
`~V`	ISO 8601 week number of the year with Monday as first day of week (01..53)^[1]
`~w`	day of week (0...6)
`~W`	week number of year with Monday as first day of week (01...52)
`~x`	locale's date representation^[1]
`~X`	locale's time representation^[1]
`~y`	last two digits of year (00...99)
`~Y`	year
`~z`	time zone in RFC-822 style
`~Z`	symbol time zone (not-implemented)
`~1`	ISO-8601 year-month-day format
`~2`	ISO-8601 hour-minute-second-timezone format
`~3`	ISO-8601 hour-minute-second format
`~4`	ISO-8601 year-month-day-hour-minute-second-timezone format
`~5`	ISO-8601 year-month-day-hour-minute-second format

Table 1: `DATE->STRING` conversion specifiers

^[1] These lines were changed as part of a fix to errata on 2009-06-11.

Ch	Skip to	Read	Set


`~~`	any	read literal `~`	nothing
`~a`	char-alphabetic?	abbreviated weekday in locale	nothing
`~A`	char-alphabetic?	full weekday in locale	nothing
`~b`	char-alphabetic?	abbreviated month name in locale	nothing
`~B`	char-alphabetic?	full month name in locale	nothing
`~d`	char-numeric?	day of month	`date-day`
`~e`	any	day of month, blank padded	`date-day`
`~h`	char-alphabetic?	same as ~b	nothing
`~H`	char-numeric?	hour	`date-hour`
`~k`	any	hour, blank padded	`date-hour`
`~m`	char-numeric?	month	`date-month`
`~M`	char-numeric?	minute	`date-minute`
`~S`	char-numeric?	second	`date-second`
`~y`	any	2-digit year	`date-year` within 50 years
`~Y`	char-numeric?	year	`date-year`
`~z`	any	time zone	`date-zone-offset`

Table 2: `STRING->DATE` conversion specifiers

Implementation

This SRFI cannot be written in completely standard Scheme. In particular, there must be some system-independent method of finding the values for CURRENT-TIME. The GNU C function, gettimeofday might prove useful to implementors.

The difference between TAI and UTC is not determinate, and implementations must provide some method for getting TAI. A procedure is provided in the accompanying implementation for reading the leap second table provided by the Time Service of the US Naval Observatory (available at ftp://maia.usno.navy.mil/ser7/tai-utc.dat).

The accompanying implementation assumes SRFI 6 Basic String Ports. The accompanying implementation also assumes an error procedure. The accompanying implementation also assumes SRFI 8 RECEIVE: Binding to multiple values. which is easy to implement with the following syntax:

(define-syntax receive
  (syntax-rules ()
    ((receive formals expression body ...)
     (call-with-values (lambda () expression)
                       (lambda formals body ...)))))

Note that it contains TAI-UTC.DAT reader.

The accompanying implementation is written in MzScheme. MzScheme provides the procedure current-seconds, which returns the number of seconds (UTC) since 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z+00:00, and current-milliseconds, which is a monotonic time clock. Combining these provides an implementation of (current-time time-utc). Monontonic time, in this implementation, is the same as TAI time; differences between TAI and UTC are resolved through a leap second table. According to the International Earth Rotation Service, there will be no leap second in December, 2000. Thus, the leap second table is guaranteed to be correct through June, 2000.

Also, MzScheme (as of version 102, I believe) provides a method for returning the current time zone offset, via its SECONDS->DATE and CURRENT-DATE procedures.

MzScheme's DEFINE-STRUCT was used to define the time and date objects. SRFI 9, Defining Record Types, could be used instead.

Procedures meant to be used internally have names beginning with TM:. Locale-related constants and procedures have locale in their name; if a 'locale' SRFI is ever written, it might be good to use that code instead.

From this, the rest of the implementation was built.

There is also a test suite.

Acknowledgements

Claus Tøndering's Frequently Asked Questions about calendars was a very useful resource. The implementation of Julian Day, Modified Julian Day, and Year Day comes from his FAQ. Markus Kuhn has a useful description of the ISO Standard 8601 for Date/Time notation; The W3 Consortium also has a useful Note.

Mike Sperber, Marc Feeley, Dave Mason, and "Prfnoff" all made useful comments on previous versions of this draft. Thanks to Shriram Krishnamurthi for his editing help.

The DATE->STRING procedure uses a format string, based on GNU C's date procedure, as well as scsh's FORMAT-DATE procedure.

Copyright

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Editor: Shriram Krishnamurthi

Last modified by the author:

(display (date->string (current-date 0)
"~4"))

: 2017-05-05T21:42:17Z