Re: Difference between 2 time values expressed in hh:mm:ss format

[Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Brian,

When you give this answer again (and you will -- I've given it at least 
twice a month for the past 4 years) please add a disclaimer.

The disclaimer is that the TIME data type was not intended to store a 
DURATION.  It was meant to identify a particular moment of the day, not 
to express an amount of time that has passed.

Consequently, it does not work well for this sort of thing.  For 
example, if there's 15 hours and 20 minutes have elapsed between a 
start/end timestamp, and you format the time in USA format, it'll say 
"3:20 PM"  It identifies a time of the day, not a number of hours that 
elapsed.

Likewise, if you try to exceed 24 hours, you'll get an error.  For 
example, you can't make it say 26 hrs, 5 minutes.  Why not?  Because it 
identifies a time of day, and there's no 26 O'Clock.

So while the technique you propose does have value in certain 
circumstances, you should understand that you're doing something that 
wasn't really intended -- and therefore won't always do what you expect.


On 5/24/2010 9:04 AM, BMay@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Use the %Diff Bif to get the difference in seconds.  Then add the seconds
> to a time field set for midnight (00:00:00).