Countdown Timer problems

Bonnett · Jan 14, 2004

I have been creating a generic countdown timer (source code below), counting
the seconds, minutes, hours and days till an event, but I have having
trouble with it finding out how many hours are left. When i get it to
display a complete countdown (days hours mins seconds left) it is one hour
short when counting dates that fall in the following time brackets:
2004,2,29 -> 2004,9,31
2005,2,28 -> 2005,9,30
2006,2,27 -> 2006,9,29
etc..

I have tested this on mozilla firebird 0.7, and internet explorer 5.5 + 6
and the problem always occurs. Is this a bug in javascript, or just my bad
mathematics in finding the modulo value.

Source code:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>JavaScript Countdown</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JAVASCRIPT TYPE="TEXT/JAVASCRIPT">



var theTime="";
var type = "theLot"//Default is the lot

function getType(){
if (document.theForm.changeType[0].checked) {
type = "seconds"
}
else if (document.theForm.changeType[1].checked) {
type = "mins"
}
else if (document.theForm.changeType[2].checked) {
type = "hours"
}
else if (document.theForm.changeType[3].checked) {
type = "days"
}
else if (document.theForm.changeType[4].checked) {
type = "theLot"
}
}

function showTheTime() {
getType();//See what radio button is checked
now = new Date
next = new Date(2004,2,8); //Date you are counting down to
if(type=="seconds"){
document.getElementById("countdown").innerHTML =
parseInt((next.getTime() - now.getTime())/1000)+" seconds"; //Set text to
show seconds left
}
else if(type=="mins"){
document.getElementById("countdown").innerHTML =
parseInt((next.getTime() - now.getTime())/(1000*60))+" mins"; //Set text to
show minutes left
}
else if(type=="hours"){
document.getElementById("countdown").innerHTML =
parseInt((next.getTime() - now.getTime())/(1000*60*60))+" hours"; //Set text
to show hours left
}
else if(type=="days"){
document.getElementById("countdown").innerHTML =
parseInt((next.getTime() - now.getTime())/(1000*60*60*24))+" days"; //Set
text to show days left
}
else if(type=="theLot"){
days = parseInt((next.getTime() - now.getTime())/(1000*60*60*24));
//Calculation to get the days
hrsLeft = parseInt((next.getTime() -
now.getTime())/(1000*60*60))%24;//Calculation to get the hours left
minsLeft = parseInt((next.getTime() -
now.getTime())/(1000*60))%60;//Calculation to get the minutes left
secsLeft = parseInt((next.getTime() -
now.getTime())/(1000))%60;//Calculation to get the seconds left
document.getElementById("countdown").innerHTML = days + " days " + hrsLeft
+ " hours " + minsLeft + " minutes " + secsLeft +" seconds. ";
}
setTimeout("showTheTime()",1000)

}

//-->
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR=WHITE onLoad="showTheTime()">
<DIV ID="countdown"></DIV>
<FORM NAME="theForm">
Choose type:
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="changeType">Seconds
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="changeType">Minutes
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="changeType">Hours
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="changeType">Days
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="changeType" CHECKED>The Lot
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Lee · Jan 14, 2004

Bonnett said:

I have been creating a generic countdown timer (source code below), counting
the seconds, minutes, hours and days till an event, but I have having
trouble with it finding out how many hours are left. When i get it to
display a complete countdown (days hours mins seconds left) it is one hour
short when counting dates that fall in the following time brackets:
2004,2,29 -> 2004,9,31
2005,2,28 -> 2005,9,30
2006,2,27 -> 2006,9,29
etc..

I have tested this on mozilla firebird 0.7, and internet explorer 5.5 + 6
and the problem always occurs. Is this a bug in javascript, or just my bad
mathematics in finding the modulo value.

Fall back in Fall. Spring forward in Spring.

Bonnett · Jan 14, 2004

Lee said:
Bonnett said:

Fall back in Fall. Spring forward in Spring.

*groans*

Thank you, i shall have to remember to put a little message on the page
informing anyone who uses it

Bonnett

Dr John Stockton · Jan 15, 2004

JRS: In article <[email protected]>, seen in

news:comp.lang.javascript said:
Thank you, i shall have to remember to put a little message on the page
informing anyone who uses it

Obviously you did not read the newsgroup FAQ carefully enough; nor
articles posted here within the last few days.

There is no need for a little message; just code it right.

You have a choice: assuming you are counting to midwinter, and it is now
summer, do you or do you not want to show the extra hour?

To show it, just use the UTC functions throughout.

To avoid it, do not use getTime, but do long-arithmetic subtraction of
the fields of the current civil time from those of the target. This
becomes almost trivial if the target is a midnight - but first, convert
from Y M D to days.

One should not use parseInt to make a number an integer; Math.floor is
provided for that.

You have next = new Date(2004,2,8) ;
next = new Date("2004/03/08")
while longer is less likely to be in error.

Don't put 1000 as the second parameter of setTimeout; one can easily do
better - see below.

Much of the text of showTheTime is repeated, and could be outside the
conditionals: e.g. use one var T = document.getElementById("countdown")
and several T.innerHTML = ... ; use one
var DT = (next.getTime() - now.getTime()) and several DT.

..innerHTML does not work on all browsers; see FAQ discussion in this
newsgroup.

Don't let your newsreader wrap long lines; do it yourself, where best
for legibility. Those who wish to test your code, or modifications to
it, should not be forced to repair it first.

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Countdown Timer problems

Bonnett

Lee

Bonnett

Dr John Stockton

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