Calculate the date after subtracting nmbr of days form a date

[Laery]

Hi,

I'm currently adding a new module to an old borland C3.1 application
(dos).
And I need to calculate a date by subtracting the number of days from
a given date.

I know I could use an array of days in the months and go back by
leaping when 1 is reached. (keeping the 29the of feb and january/year
in mind).
But is there no function in Borland C3.1 which will do this for me?

I couldn't find one in the help?

Regards
Laery

 

[John]

(e-mail address removed) (Laery) wrote in

I'm currently adding a new module to an old borland C3.1 application
(dos).
And I need to calculate a date by subtracting the number of days from
a given date.
[...]

I couldn't find one in the help?

Look-up difftime and localtime... They're functions that have been in the
Borland libraries at least since v1.5 and should help you do what you're
trying to do.


John

 

[infobahn]

Hi,

I'm currently adding a new module to an old borland C3.1 application
(dos).
And I need to calculate a date by subtracting the number of days from
a given date.

Load the date into a struct tm, taking care to ensure that:

(a) all fields you don't set are cleared to 0, eg with:
struct tm date = (0); /* for now, just trust me on this */
(b) the year field contains the full year less 1900 (so, for 2005,
it would be set to 105).
(c) the month field is in the range 0 to 11.
(d) all other relevant fields are set correctly.

Now subtract the number of days you want, and then pass the
struct's address to mktime(), catching the result in a time_t
object.

If the result is not (time_t)-1 (which would indicate failure to
convert the date as you require), it can be passed to localtime()
or gmtime(), which both return pointers to struct tm from which
you can extract the date information you require.

 

[Richard Bos]

(e-mail address removed) (Laery) wrote in



Look-up difftime and localtime... They're functions that have been in the
Borland libraries at least since v1.5 and should help you do what you're
trying to do.

No, they won't. difftime() gives the difference, in seconds, between two
time_t's; it doesn't allow you to change an existing time_t. localtime()
converts from time_t to struct tm, but doesn't do any other
computations.
Using mktime() is the right solution. If BC3.1 doesn't have it yet
(i.e., if it's pre-ISO), you _may_ be able to get away with subtracting
days*24*3600 from a time_t, but do note that this relies on time_t being
a straight number of seconds since the epoch, which it isn't required to
be. Doing so would make your code unportable, but if it's already
Borland-specific, that may not be a problem. Adding a comment explaining
the hack would be a good idea, even so.

Richard

 

[Stan Milam]

Hi,

I'm currently adding a new module to an old borland C3.1 application
(dos).
And I need to calculate a date by subtracting the number of days from
a given date.

I know I could use an array of days in the months and go back by
leaping when 1 is reached. (keeping the 29the of feb and january/year
in mind).
But is there no function in Borland C3.1 which will do this for me?

I couldn't find one in the help?

Regards
Laery

I have a really robust date library which was published in the C User's
Journal a few years ago. Drop me a line and I will email it to you
(damn, I've got to get that web page up!). I also used it to write a
Unix shell utility called ADU (a date utility) that allows you to do
date math in the Unix shell. If there were a decent shell for Windows
you could use it there too.

 

[Jack Klein]

Load the date into a struct tm, taking care to ensure that:

(a) all fields you don't set are cleared to 0, eg with:
struct tm date = (0); /* for now, just trust me on this */

ITYM struct tm date = { 0 };

 

[Randy Howard]

Load the date into a struct tm, taking care to ensure that:

(a) all fields you don't set are cleared to 0, eg with:
struct tm date = (0); /* for now, just trust me on this */

It would be more trustworthy with braces instead of parens.

 

[infobahn]

ITYM struct tm date = { 0 };

I do indeed. I was clearly tempting fate a little too much with that
comment.

 

[infobahn]

It would be more trustworthy with braces instead of parens.

<sigh>
Some days, it just doesn't pay to fire up your newsreader. :-$
</sigh>

 

[dragoncoder]

Hello Stan

If you could mail me a copy of the date library you are talking about,
that will be very kind of you. Just mail it to me at

ptiwaryATmahindrabtDOTcom

Thanks in advance.

 

[Randy Howard]

<sigh>
Some days, it just doesn't pay to fire up your newsreader. :-$
</sigh>

Unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean.

 

[Laery]

Hi,

Thanks for all the responses.

Regards
Laery