Date, Time, Time Add and Subtract, and Time Conversion Blocks
These are the various date and time related blocks available in the Time group of the block library:
- date: extracts just the date portion of a date time value
- dateTimeAdd: adds a duration (hrs, mins, or secs) to a dateTime
- dateTimeSub: subtracts a duration (hrs, mins, or secs) from a dateTime
- dateToNumber: converts the date into a number
- dateToString: converts a part of date into a string
- dtToDtAdd: adds one dateTime to another dateTime; results in a duration of minutes or seconds
- dtToDtSub: subtracts one dateTime from another dateTime; results in a duration of minutes or seconds
- now: gets the current dateTime for the host
- siteDateTime: gets the current date and time for the site associated with the target Ref of the bline program
- time: extracts just the time portion of a date time value
- timeToMinutes: converts a time value to a number of minutes
- timeToTimeAdd: adds one time to another time; results in a duration of minutes or seconds
- timeToTimeSub: subracts one time from another time; results in a duration of minutes or seconds
Some blocks have inputs or results in dateTime format, while others in simple time format. Blocks that require a time format input might not work if a dateTime value is used as the input.
dateTime example: 2019-07-04 14:39:15:149 (date and time with milliseconds)
time example: 14:39:15 (just hours:minutes:seconds)
The Blocks can be found in the Block Library in the Time group.
Date and Time Blocks
These four blocks provide or extract a value of time or dateTime, depending on your usage and need.
date: extracts just the date portion of a date time value
time: extracts just the time portion of a date time value
now: gets the current date and time from the host PC where the program is running
siteDateTime: gets the current date and time for the site associated with the target Ref of the bline program
Time Add and Subtract Blocks
dateTimeAdd: adds a duration (days, hrs, mins, or secs) to a dateTime
dateTimeSub: subtracts a duration (days, hrs, mins, or secs) from a dateTime
dtToDtAdd: adds one dateTime to another dateTime; results in a duration of minutes or seconds. Note: This is not to be considered a traditional add function. Rather, the result is in fact an invert of a subtraction of the two inputs. Meaning, if the difference is 30 minutes, then the result is written as -30 min. So it is actually subtracting the two inputs and then inverting the math sign of the result.
dtToDtSub: subtracts one dateTime from another dateTime; results in a duration of minutes or seconds
timeToTimeAdd: adds one time to another time; results in a duration of minutes or seconds. Note: This is not to be considered a traditional add function. Rather, the result is in fact an invert of a subtraction of the two inputs. Meaning, if the difference is 30 minutes, then the result is written as -30 min. So it is actually subtracting the two inputs and then inverting the math sign of the result.
timeToTimeSub: subracts one time from another time; results in a duration of minutes or seconds
Time Conversion Blocks
dateToNumber: converts the date into a number
dateToString: converts a part of date into a string
timeToMinutes: converts a time value to a number of minutes
The above screenshot represents several examples of the date/time block usage.
- a tag will get the date and time value from the site associated with the target Ref of the program
- another tag will get only the time value from a date & time tag(the one create at the first step)
- then using the dateToString block the value only for the weekday and month are picked from the same time
- finally using the dateToNumber block there are several numbers collected from the same tag for
Click on the link below to watch a video demonstration on how the above example was set up!