CkDateTime FoxPro Reference Documentation

CkDateTime

Current Version: 11.6.0

CkDateTime represents a date/time value and provides conversion methods for common date/time formats, including .NET DateTime, DateTime ticks, RFC 822, RFC 3339 / ISO 8601-style timestamps, Unix time, DOS date/time, OLE DATE, NTP time, ULID timestamps, and Chilkat DtObj. It also supports date arithmetic, age/expiration checks, serialization, and local/UTC conversion.

For an extended overview, see CkDateTime Class Overview

Object Creation

loCkDateTime = CreateObject('Chilkat.CkDateTime')

Visual FoxPro is a 32-bit application and therefore uses the 32-bit Chilkat ActiveX. To bind to a specific major version of Chilkat, append the major version number to the ProgID, such as CreateObject('Chilkat.CkDateTime.11') for Chilkat v11.*.*.

Properties

DebugLogFilePath

DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

More Information and Examples

Example showing how to use DebugLogFilePath.

IsDst

IsDst As Number (read-only)

This is the Daylight Saving Time flag. It can have one of three possible values: 1, 0, or -1. It has the value 1 if Daylight Saving Time is in effect, 0 if Daylight Saving Time is not in effect, and -1 if the information is not available.

Note: This is NOT the DST for the current system time. It is the DST that was in effect at the date value contained in this object.

LastBinaryResult

LastBinaryResult As Variant (read-only)

This property is mainly used in SQL Server stored procedures to retrieve binary data from the last method call that returned binary data. It is only accessible if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This feature allows for the retrieval of large varbinary results in an SQL Server environment, which has restrictions on returning large data via method calls, though temp tables can handle binary properties.

LastErrorHtml

LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

LastErrorText

LastErrorText As String (read-only)

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

More Information and Examples

Concept of LastErrorText LastErrorText Standard Information

LastErrorXml

LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

LastMethodSuccess

LastMethodSuccess As Number

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: 1 means success, 0 means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages. Note: This property does not apply to methods that return integer values or to boolean-returning methods where the boolean does not indicate success or failure.

LastStringResult

LastStringResult As String (read-only)

In SQL Server stored procedures, this property holds the string return value of the most recent method call that returns a string. It is accessible only when Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to TRUE. SQL Server has limitations on string lengths returned from methods and properties, but temp tables can be used to access large strings.

More Information and Examples

Long Strings Returned by ActiveX Methods in SQL Server

LastStringResultLen

LastStringResultLen As Number (read-only)

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

UtcOffset

UtcOffset As Number (read-only)

For the current system's timezone, returns the number of seconds offset from UTC for this date/time. The offset includes daylight savings adjustment. Local timezones west of UTC return a negative offset.

VerboseLogging

VerboseLogging As Number

If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

Version

Version As String (read-only)

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

More Information and Examples

How to get the Chilkat version at runtime.

Methods

AddDays

AddDays(numDays As Number) As Number

Adds an integer number of days to the date/time. To subtract days, pass a negative integer.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

AddSeconds

AddSeconds(numSeconds As Number) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.65

Adds an integer number of seconds to the date/time. To subtract seconds, pass a negative integer.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

DateTime - Add or Subtract Seconds

DeSerialize

DeSerialize(serializedDateTime As String)

Loads the date/time with a string having the format as produced by the Serialize method, which is a string of SPACE separated integers containing (in this order) year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, and a UTC flag having the value of 1/0.

DiffSeconds

DiffSeconds(dateTimeArg As CkDateTime) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.65

Returns the difference in seconds between the dateTimeArg and this date/time. The value returned is this object's date/time - dateTimeArg's date/time. For example, if the returned value is positive, then this object's date/time is more recent than dateTimeArg's date/time. If the return value is negative, then this object's date/time is older than dateTimeArg's date/time.

More Information and Examples

Compute Difference Between Two DateTime Strings

ExpiresWithin

ExpiresWithin(n As Number, units As String) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Returns 1 if the date/time is within n seconds/minutes/hours/days of the current system date/time. Otherwise returns 0. The units can be seconds, minutes, hours, or days (plural or singular).

More Information and Examples

Date/Time Expires Within N Seconds/Minutes/Hours/Days

GetAsDateTime

GetAsDateTime(bLocal As Number) As DateTime

Returns the date/time in a native format. The .NET implementation returns a .NET System.DateTime structure. The ActiveX implementation returns a Date object.

bLocal indicates whether a local or UTC time is returned.

GetAsDosDate

GetAsDosDate(bLocal As Number) As Number

Returns the date/time as a 32-bit DOS date/time bitmask.

bLocal indicates whether a local or UTC time is returned.

The DOS date/time format is a bitmask:


			   24                16                 8                 0
	    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	    |Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|Y|M| |M|M|M|D|D|D|D|D| |h|h|h|h|h|m|m|m| |m|m|m|s|s|s|s|s|
	    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	     \___________/\________/\_________/ \________/\____________/\_________/
		 year        month       day      hour       minute        second

The year is stored as an offset from 1980. Seconds are stored in two-second increments. (So if the second value is 15, it actually represents 30 seconds.)

GetAsIso8601

GetAsIso8601(formatStr As String, bLocal As Number) As String

Introduced in version 9.5.0.65

Returns the date/time in a compatible ISO 8601 format according to the format specified in formatStr.. Examples of ISO 8601 formats include the following:

    YYYY-MM-DD

    YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD

    YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD

    YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss:sssTZD

For the date portion of these formats, YYYY is a four-digit year representation, MM is a two-digit month, and DD is a two-digit day. For the time portion, hh is the hour in 24-hour notation, mm is the two-digit minutes, ss is the two-digit seconds, and sss is the 3-digit milliseconds. A time designator T separates the date and time portions of the string, while a time zone designator TZD specifies a time zone (UTC).

bLocal indicates whether a local or UTC time is returned.

Returns .NULL. on failure

More Information and Examples

DateTime - Get in ISO 8601 Compatible Format

GetAsOleDate

GetAsOleDate(bLocal As Number) As Number

Returns the date/time in a Windows OLE DATE format.

bLocal indicates whether a local or UTC time is returned.

The OLE automation date format is a floating point value, counting days since midnight 30 December 1899. Hours and minutes are represented as fractional days.

GetAsRfc822

GetAsRfc822(bLocal As Number) As String

Returns the date/time as an RFC822 formatted string. (An RFC822 format string is what is found in the Date header field of an email, such as Wed, 18 Oct 2017 09:08:21 GMT.)

bLocal indicates whether a local or UTC time is returned.

Returns .NULL. on failure

GetAsTimestamp

GetAsTimestamp(bLocal As Number) As String

Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Returns the date/time as an RFC 3339 formatted string, such as 1990-12-31T23:59:60Z. (This is an ISO 8061 format like the following: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD)

bLocal indicates whether a local or UTC time is returned.

Returns .NULL. on failure

More Information and Examples

Get Current Date/Time as Timestamp (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD)

GetAsUnixTime

GetAsUnixTime(bLocal As Number) As Number

Returns the date/time as a Unix time value, which is the number of seconds elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970.

bLocal indicates whether the date/time returned is local or UTC.

GetAsUnixTimeStr

GetAsUnixTimeStr(bLocal As Number) As String

Introduced in version 9.5.0.65

Returns the time in Unix format (in seconds since the epoch: 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970).

bLocal indicates whether the date/time returned is local or UTC.

Returns .NULL. on failure

More Information and Examples

DateTime - Get as Unix Time String

LoadTaskResult

LoadTaskResult(task As ChilkatTask) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.52

Loads the date/time from a completed asynchronous task.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

OlderThan

OlderThan(n As Number, units As String) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Returns 1 if the date/time is older than the current system date/time by n seconds/minutes/hours/days. Otherwise returns 0. The units can be seconds, minutes, hours, or days (plural or singular).

More Information and Examples

Date/Time Older-Than N Seconds/Minutes/Hours/Days

Serialize

Serialize() As String

Serializes the date/time to a us-ascii string that can be imported at a later time via the DeSerialize method. The format of the string returned by this method is not intended to match any published standard. It is formatted to a string with SPACE separated integers containing (in this order) year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, and a UTC flag having the value of 1 or 0.

Returns .NULL. on failure

SetFromCurrentSystemTime

SetFromCurrentSystemTime() As Number

Sets the date/time from the current system time.

SetFromDosDate

SetFromDosDate(bLocal As Number, t As Number) As Number

Sets the date/time from a 32-bit DOS date/time bitmask. See GetAsDosDate for more information.

SetFromDtObj

SetFromDtObj(dt As DtObj) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.47

Sets the date/time from a Chilkat Dt object.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

SetFromNtpServer

SetFromNtpServer(jsonStr As String) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.96

Sets the date/time by sending a query to an NTP server.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Query NTP Server for Current Date/Time

SetFromNtpTime

SetFromNtpTime(ntpSeconds As Number) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.50

Sets the date/time from a 32-bit NTP time value. ntpSeconds is the number of seconds since 00:00 (midnight) 1 January 1900 GMT.

SetFromOleDate

SetFromOleDate(bLocal As Number, dt As Number) As Number

Sets the date/time from a Windows OLE DATE value.

bLocal indicates whether the passed in date/time is local or UTC.

Note: This method was not working correctly. The problem was discovered just after releasing v9.5.0.65. It will be fixed in the next version update.

SetFromRfc822

SetFromRfc822(rfc822Str As String) As Number

Sets the date/time from an RFC822 date/time formatted string. Here are some examples of RFC822 formatted date/times:

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 22:00:58 +0000
Tue, 15 Nov 2022 20:21:50 +0100
Tue, 01 Nov 2022 18:09:41 -0600

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

SetFromTimestamp

SetFromTimestamp(timestamp As String) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Sets the date/time from an RFC 3339 timestamp format. (such as 1990-12-31T23:59:60Z:)

(This is an ISO 8061 format like the following: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD)

Note: Starting in v9.5.0.77, strings formatted as YYMMDDhhmmssZ, such as 181221132225Z, can also be passed to this method.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

How to Parse a TimeStamp (such as 2016-11-11T14:32:17.0908971Z)

SetFromUlid

SetFromUlid(bLocal As Number, ulid As String) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.94

Sets this object's date/time using the timestamp embedded in the ulid. If the ulid was not a valid ULID, returns 0 and the date/time is not set. bLocal indicates whether the ulid uses a local time or UTC time.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Extract Timestamp from ULID

SetFromUnixTime

SetFromUnixTime(bLocal As Number, t As Number) As Number

Sets the date/time from a UNIX time value.

bLocal indicates whether the passed in date/time is local or UTC.

ToDtObj

ToDtObj(bLocal As Number, dtObj As DtObj)

Introduced in version 11.0.0

Copies the date/time to the dtObj. Gets the date/time in the local time if bLocal is 1, or GMT if bLocal is 0.

UlidGenerate

UlidGenerate(bLocal As Number) As String

Introduced in version 9.5.0.94

Generates and returns a new ULID using this object's date/time value. bLocal indicates whether to use local time or UTC time.

Returns .NULL. on failure

More Information and Examples

UlidIncrement

UlidIncrement(ulid As ChilkatStringBuilder) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.94

Increments the ULID that is passed in ulid.

More Information and Examples

Generate Monotonic ULIDs

UlidValidate

UlidValidate(ulid As String) As Number

Introduced in version 9.5.0.94

Validates the ulid. Returns 1 if the ulid is valid, otherwise returns 0.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples

Validate a ULID

Deprecated

GetDtObj

GetDtObj(bLocal As Number) As DtObj

Introduced in version 9.5.0.47

This method is deprecated.

Returns that date/time in the date-time object.

This method is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Applications should use the ToDtObj method.

Returns .NULL. on failure

More Information and Examples

Get Email Date/Time