1 minute Error in time difference calculation - c++builder

My Programming Environment is Borland C++ Builder 6.
I have encountered a problem with a bad result in the following code:
TDateTime dtEnter, dtExit;
dtEnter = EncodeDateTime(2016, 11, 29, 0, 49, 0, 0);
dtExit = EncodeDateTime(2016, 11, 29, 0, 50, 0, 0);
ShowMessage(dtEnter);
ShowMessage(dtExit);
ShowMessage(IntToStr(MinutesBetween(dtEnter, dtExit)));
The result is 0 instead of 1!
Why is this?

This is a known issue in older versions of the DateUtils unit, which was first introduced in Delphi/C++Builder 6. The issue lasted for several years until it was finally fixed in Delphi/C++Builder XE.
TDateTime is essentially just a double, where the date is stored in the integral portion and the time is stored in the fractional portion. As such, it is subject to approximate representations and rounding.
In your example, dtEnter is 42703.0340277778 and dtExit is 42703.0347222222.
The span between two TDateTime values is calculated using simple floating-point math:
function SpanOfNowAndThen(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): TDateTime;
begin
if ANow < AThen then
Result := AThen - ANow
else
Result := ANow - AThen;
end;
In your example, SpanOfNowAndThen(dtEnter, dtExit) is 0.000694444439432118.
In the case of the MinutesBetween() function, prior to XE it would call MinuteSpan(), which returns a Double that is the result of SpanOfNowAndThen() multiplied by the MinsPerDay constant, and then it would truncate off the fractional portion to produce the final integer:
function MinuteSpan(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Double;
begin
Result := MinsPerDay * SpanOfNowAndThen(ANow, AThen);
end;
function MinutesBetween(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Int64;
begin
Result := Trunc(MinuteSpan(ANow, AThen));
end;
In your example, MinuteSpan() produces a decimal value that is slightly less than 1.0 (0.99999999278225, to be exact), which becomes 0 when the decimal is truncated off.
In XE, many of the DateUtils functions were re-written to use more reliable calculations that are not based on floating-point math. Although MinuteSpan() is still the same, MinutesBetween() no longer uses MinuteSpan(). Instead, it now converts the two TDateTime values to milliseconds (which is lossless since TDateTime has millisecond precision), subtracts the values, and then divides the absolute value of the difference by a constant number of milliseconds per minute:
function DateTimeToMilliseconds(const ADateTime: TDateTime): Int64;
var
LTimeStamp: TTimeStamp;
begin
LTimeStamp := DateTimeToTimeStamp(ADateTime);
Result := LTimeStamp.Date;
Result := (Result * MSecsPerDay) + LTimeStamp.Time;
end;
function MinutesBetween(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Int64;
begin
Result := Abs(DateTimeToMilliseconds(ANow) - DateTimeToMilliseconds(AThen))
div (MSecsPerSec * SecsPerMin);
end;
In your example, DateTimeToMilliseconds(dtEnter) is 63616063740000 and DateTimeToMilliseconds(dtExit) is 63616063800000, so the difference is 60000 ms, which is exactly 1 minute.
For versions prior to XE, you will have to implement a similar fix manually in your own code. This is discussed in various online blogs, such as:
How do I work around Delphi's inability to accurately handle datetime manipulations?
Accurate Difference Between Two TDateTime Values

Related

Delphi - RoundTo - always down

I need to round a floating point number to two decimal places, but always down. Now I use RoundTo(number, -2), but it does the rounding mathematically correctly, which is undesired behavior for my situation. Let the reason, why I need to do this, aside...
I eventually achieved it using this:
var a,b: currency;
floatStr: string;
format: TFormatSettings;
localeDec: char;
begin
format:= TFormatSettings.Create;
localeDec:= format.DecimalSeparator;
format.DecimalSeparator:= ',';
System.SysUtils.FormatSettings:= format;
a:= 2/30;
floatStr:= floatToStr(a);
b:= strToCurr(
copy(floatStr, 1, ansiPos(',', floatStr) + 2)
);
showMessage(currToStr(b));
format.DecimalSeparator := localeDec;
System.SysUtils.FormatSettings:= format;
end;
However, this solution just doesn't feel right. Is there a "mathematically clean" way to do it, without messing with strings and resetting decimal separators etc. ? I searched a lot, but didn't find any.
You can do the following:
Multiply the value by 100.
Truncate to an integer, towards zero.
Divide the value by 100.
Like this:
function RoundCurrTo2dpTruncate(const Value: Currency): Currency;
begin
Result := Trunc(Value*100) / 100;
end;
I've assumed that by rounding down you mean towards zero. So 0.678 rounds down to 0.67 and -0.678 to -0.67. However, if you want to round towards -∞ then you should replace Trunc with Floor.
function RoundCurrTo2dpDown(const Value: Currency): Currency;
begin
Result := Floor(Value*100) / 100;
end;
Another way to tackle the problem is to recognise that a Currency value is simply a 64 bit integer with an implicit shift of 10000. So the entire operation can be performed using integer operations, unlike the code above which uses floating point operations.
From the documentation:
Currency is a fixed-point data type that minimizes rounding errors in monetary calculations. It is stored as a scaled 64-bit integer with the 4 least significant digits implicitly representing decimal places. When mixed with other real types in assignments and expressions, Currency values are automatically divided or multiplied by 10000.
For example you could implement RoundCurrTo2dpTruncate like this:
function RoundCurrTo2dpTruncate(const Value: Currency): Currency;
begin
PInt64(#Result)^ := (PInt64(#Value)^ div 100)*100;
end;
Note that here the arithmetic has been an shifted by 10000. So multiplication by 100 has become division by 100. And so on.
You can use SetRoundMode with old Delphi RoundTo
SetRoundMode(rmDown);
function RoundTo(const AValue: Double; const ADigit: TRoundToRange): Double;
var
LFactor: Double;
begin
LFactor := IntPower(10, ADigit);
Result := Round(AValue / LFactor) * LFactor;
end;
Obviously it was changed in recent versions

Convert Extended to Time

I need to convert extended values to time format. For example :
3.50 represents 00:03:50
62.02 represents 01:02:02
73.70 represents 01:14:10
I have tried the following function to convert the Hour and Minutes part but I don't have any idea on how to convert the Seconds' part.
function ConvertToTime(AValue: Extended): TDateTime;
begin
Result:= EncodeTime(trunc(ArticleRec.Quantity) div 60,trunc(ArticleRec.Quantity) mod 60,0,0);
end;
Thanking you in anticipation for your help.
The fractional part is obtained like this:
var
SecondsFrac: Double;
....
SecondsFrac := Frac(Value);
And then you can convert from a floating point fractional value in the range 0 to 1 to an integer in the range 0 to 100 like this:
var
Seconds: Integer;
....
Seconds := Round(SecondsFrac*100);
This is a pretty weird way to store time though. You have to deal with the fact that when Seconds >= 60 you need to increment the minutes, and decrement Seconds by 60.
I guess I'd do that by converting the time into seconds, and going from there:
function ConvertWeirdTimeFormatToSeconds(const Value: Double): Integer;
var
SecondsFrac: Double;
begin
SecondsFrac := Frac(Value);
Result := Round(SecondsFrac*100) + Trunc(Value)*60;
end;
You can then decode the seconds into distinct parts like this:
procedure DecodeSeconds(Value: Integer; out Hours, Minutes, Seconds: Integer);
begin
Seconds := Value mod 60;
Value := Value div 60;
Minutes := Value mod 60;
Value := Value div 60;
Hours := Value;
end;
Which makes me think it might be better to just store the time in an integer number seconds from midnight. It makes far more sense to use a standard format, in my view.
I see no reason to use Extended here, or indeed anywhere for that matter. It's a non-standard type that due to its strange size and consequent alignment issues tends to perform poorly. And it's only supported on x86.

Why DateTimeToMilliseconds in DateUtils.pas is marked as internal?

Why DateTimeToMilliseconds in DateUtils.pas is marked as internal?
Can I use it?
{ Internal, converts a date-time to milliseconds }
function DateTimeToMilliseconds(const ADateTime: TDateTime): Int64;
var
LTimeStamp: TTimeStamp;
begin
LTimeStamp := DateTimeToTimeStamp(ADateTime);
Result := LTimeStamp.Date;
Result := (Result * MSecsPerDay) + LTimeStamp.Time;
end;
[Delphi XE]
I have found this on About.com:
Experience shows that creating two TDateTime values using the function and EncodeDateTime that are distant from each other only a millisecond, the function returns a MillisecondsBetween not return as was expected, proving that it is not accurate.
So, if I don't care about few milisecs, I should use it.
The TDateTime is a floating point double. To minimize rounding errors when working with TDateTime values, most calculations in DateUtils converts the TDateTime to milliseconds.
Later when calculations are ready the Int64 value is converted back to a TDateTime value again.
The internal marking is to emphasize that this function is an implementation detail, not to be utilized outside the library. That is, when working with TDateTime values, use the public functions/procedures.
This is a little test of the function MilliSecondsBetween:
program TestMSecBetween;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
System.SysUtils,System.DateUtils;
var
d1,d2 : TDateTime;
i,iSec,iMin,iHour,iMSec;
isb : Int64;
begin
d1 := EncodeDateTime(2013,6,14,0,0,0,0);
for i := 0 to 1000*60*60*24-1 do
begin
iHour := (i div (1000*60*60)) mod 24;
iMin := (i div (1000*60)) mod 60;
iSec := (i div 1000) mod 60;
iMSec := i mod 1000;
d2 := EncodeDateTime(2013,6,14,iHour,iMin,iSec,iMSec);
isb := MilliSecondsBetween(d2,d1);
if (isb <> i) then
WriteLn(i:10,iHour:3,iMin:3,iSec:3,iMSec:4,isb:3);
end;
ReadLn;
end.
You can expand the test for more than one day to see if there are some anomalies.
There's no reason you could not use it, it is not deprecated and used internally.
It's just marked as 'internal' because the function header is not in the interface section. If you copy the header there it should work.
What we always do if we 'patch' a third-party unit like this, is copying it to a directory in our own search path (named PatchLibs) before modifying. That way you can't 'damage' the original file and you don't have to worry about how to rebuild the original units.

How do I work around Delphi's inability to accurately handle datetime manipulations?

I am new to Delphi (been programming in it for about 6 months now). So far, it's been an extremely frustrating experience, most of it coming from how bad Delphi is at handling dates and times. Maybe I think it's bad because I don't know how to use TDate and TTime properly, I don't know. Here is what is happening on me right now :
// This shows 570, as expected
ShowMessage(IntToStr(MinutesBetween(StrToTime('8:00'), StrToTime('17:30'))));
// Here I would expect 630, but instead 629 is displayed. WTF!?
ShowMessage(IntToStr(MinutesBetween(StrToTime('7:00'), StrToTime('17:30'))));
That's not the exact code I use, everything is in variables and used in another context, but I think you can see the problem. Why is that calculation wrong? How am I suppose to work around this problem?
Given
a := StrToTime('7:00');
b := StrToTime('17:30');
ShowMessage(FloatToStr(a));
ShowMessage(FloatToStr(b));
your code, using MinutesBetween, effectively does this:
ShowMessage(IntToStr(trunc(MinuteSpan(a, b)))); // Gives 629
However, it might be better to round:
ShowMessage(IntToStr(round(MinuteSpan(a, b)))); // Gives 630
What is actually the floating-point value?
ShowMessage(FloatToStr(MinuteSpan(a, b))); // Gives 630
so you are clearly suffering from traditional floating-point problems here.
Update:
The major benefit of Round is that if the minute span is very close to an integer, then the rounded value will guaranteed be that integer, while the truncated value might very well be the preceding integer.
The major benefit of Trunc is that you might actually want this kind of logic: Indeed, if you turn 18 in five days, legally you are still not allowed to apply for a Swedish driving licence.
So you if you'd like to use Round instead of Trunc, you can just add
function MinutesBetween(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Int64;
begin
Result := Round(MinuteSpan(ANow, AThen));
end;
to your unit. Then the identifier MinutesBetween will refer to this one, in the same unit, instead of the one in DateUtils. The general rule is that the compiler will use the function it found latest. So, for instance, if you'd put this function above in your own unit DateUtilsFix, then
implementation
uses DateUtils, DateUtilsFix
will use the new MinutesBetween, since DateUtilsFix occurss to the right of DateUtils.
Update 2:
Another plausible approach might be
function MinutesBetween(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Int64;
var
spn: double;
begin
spn := MinuteSpan(ANow, AThen);
if SameValue(spn, round(spn)) then
result := round(spn)
else
result := trunc(spn);
end;
This will return round(spn) is the span is within the fuzz range of an integer, and trunc(spn) otherwise.
For example, using this approach
07:00:00 and 07:00:58
will yield 0 minutes, just like the original trunc-based version, and just like the Swedish Trafikverket would like. But it will not suffer from the problem that triggered the OP's question.
This is an issue that is resolved in the latest versions of Delphi. So you could either upgrade, or simply use the new code in Delphi 2010. For example this program produces the output you expect:
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
SysUtils, DateUtils;
function DateTimeToMilliseconds(const ADateTime: TDateTime): Int64;
var
LTimeStamp: TTimeStamp;
begin
LTimeStamp := DateTimeToTimeStamp(ADateTime);
Result := LTimeStamp.Date;
Result := (Result * MSecsPerDay) + LTimeStamp.Time;
end;
function MinutesBetween(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Int64;
begin
Result := Abs(DateTimeToMilliseconds(ANow) - DateTimeToMilliseconds(AThen))
div (MSecsPerSec * SecsPerMin);
end;
begin
Writeln(IntToStr(MinutesBetween(StrToTime('7:00'), StrToTime('17:30'))));
Readln;
end.
The Delphi 2010 code for MinutesBetween looks like this:
function SpanOfNowAndThen(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): TDateTime;
begin
if ANow < AThen then
Result := AThen - ANow
else
Result := ANow - AThen;
end;
function MinuteSpan(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Double;
begin
Result := MinsPerDay * SpanOfNowAndThen(ANow, AThen);
end;
function MinutesBetween(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Int64;
begin
Result := Trunc(MinuteSpan(ANow, AThen));
end;
So, MinutesBetween effectively boils down to a floating point subtraction of the two date/time values. Because of the inherent in-exactness of floating point arithmetic, this subtraction can yield a value that is slightly above or below the true value. When it is below the true value, the use of Trunc will take you all the way down to the previous minute. Simply replacing Trunc with Round would resolve the problem.
As it happens the latest Delphi versions, completely overhaul the date/time calculations. There are major changes in DateUtils. It's a little harder to analyse, but the new version relies on DateTimeToTimeStamp. That converts the time portion of the value to the number of milliseconds since midnight. And it does so like this:
function DateTimeToTimeStamp(DateTime: TDateTime): TTimeStamp;
var
LTemp, LTemp2: Int64;
begin
LTemp := Round(DateTime * FMSecsPerDay);
LTemp2 := (LTemp div IMSecsPerDay);
Result.Date := DateDelta + LTemp2;
Result.Time := Abs(LTemp) mod IMSecsPerDay;
end;
Note the use of Round. The use of Round rather than Trunc is the reason why the latest Delphi code handles MinutesBetween in a robust fashion.
Assuming that you cannot upgrade right now, I would deal with the problem like this:
Leave your code unchanged. Continue to call MinutesBetween etc.
When you do upgrade, your code that calls MinutesBetween etc. will now work.
In the meantime fix MinutesBetween etc. with code hooks. When you do come to upgrade, you can simply remove the hooks.

How to get Delphi Currency Type to Round like Excel all the time?

I'm trying to get Delphi to Round like Excel but I can't. Here is the code:
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
s : string;
c : currency;
begin
c := 54321.245;
s := '';
s := s + Format('Variable: %m',[c]);
s := s + chr(13);
s := s + Format(' Literal: %m',[54321.245]);
ShowMessage(s);
end;
I'm using a currency variable that is set to 54321.245 and when I format this variable it rounds using Bankers Rounding. However, when I format the same value as a literal it rounds the way that Excel rounds.
I was expecting this to round to $54,321.25 whether it's formating a currency variable or a literal value. How can I make sure that Delphi rounds the same way as Excel every time?
Edit
The rounding I expect to see is as follows:
54,321.245 = 54,321.25
54,321.2449 = 54,321.24
54,431.2499 = 54,421.25
I am only using literals to show the different ways Delphi rounds. I expect to use variables in the actual code.
Note:
If I change the variable from currency to extended it rounds correctly
Edit #2
Some have suggested that I do not have a clear understanding of my requirements, this is absolutely not true. I have a very clear understanding of my requirements, I'm obviously not doing a very good job of explaining them. The rounding method I want is two decimal places. When the deimal part has a thousandths value >= 0.005 I want it rounded to 0.01 the currency type offered by Delphi does not do this. I also tried this example using Microsoft SQL with a money datatype (which I assumed was the same as Delphi's currency) and SQL rounds it's money type the way I described.
SQL Money >= 0.005 = 0.01
Delphi Currency >= 0.005 := 0.00
Edit #3
Good Article: http://rvelthuis.de/articles/articles-floats.html
Possible Solution: http://rvelthuis.de/programs/decimals.html
Edit #4
Here is one of the solutions from the Embarcadero discussion
function RoundCurrency(const Value: Currency): Currency;
var
V64: Int64 absolute Result;
Decimals: Integer;
begin
Result := Value;
Decimals := V64 mod 100;
Dec(V64, Decimals);
case Decimals of
-99 .. -50 : Dec(V64, 100);
50 .. 99 : Inc(V64, 100);
end;
end;
If I understand you correctly, you are looking for this:
function RoundTo2dp(Value: Currency): Currency;
begin
Result := Trunc(Value*100+IfThen(Value>0, 0.5, -0.5))/100;
end;
It's not possible to make RTL to round the way you want. The way to affect the rounding in Delphi is to use SetRoundMode which sets the FPU conrol word for rounding, however, as far as I can tell, there's no FPU support for rounding the exact in-between to upwards (which is generally avoided because it generates a bias for higher values).
You have to implement your own rounding function. There's an extended discussion in Delphi Rounding thread on Embarcadero forums, which includes several solutions.
use function System.Math.SimpleRoundTo
You can gain control on how delphi rounding numbers by :
uses Math;
...
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
s : string;
c : currency;
begin
SetRoundMode(rmNearest);
c := 54321.245;
s := '';
s := s + Format('Variable: %m',[c]);
s := s + chr(13);
s := s + Format(' Literal: %m',[54321.245]);
ShowMessage(s);
end;
Unfortunately, using rmNearest, Delphi decides the number 54321.245 is closer to 54321.24 than 54321.25

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