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times

Ploticus time support

Ploticus can plot time values directly.

There are several functions that may be useful when working with time values.

Supported time notations

Clock times must be in the range of 0:00:00 to 24:00:00. Elapsed times have no upper limit, eg. 233:58:00 is a valid elapsed time. Time values must always be positive and the minutes and seconds components must always be < 60.

The default notation is hh:mm.

Clock time notations

hh:mm (example 11:25)

hh:mm:ss (example 11:25:02)

Elapsed time notations

hhh:mm (example 42:25)

hhh:mm:ss (example 42:25:02)

mm:ss (example 25:02) (minutes component must be < 60)

Seconds are floating-point values (see Fractional seconds, below).

Using various time notations

To work with data having other time notations, use the format portion of the xscaletype or yscaletype attributes of proc areadef.
For example:

#proc areadef
  xscaletype: time mm:ss

Display-only notations

In addition to the time arithmetic notations shown above, the following formats may be used to display clock time values:

hh:mma (examples: 11:25am, 0:40am 2:20pm)

hhA (examples: 11AM, 0AM, 2PM)

Others: hh:mm:ssa m:ss hh mm m ss s

Basic unit

The basic time unit is a minute, regardless of which notation is in use. Axis stubs and tics may be expressed in hours or seconds if desired.

Fractional seconds

Seconds are represented as floating point values, and by default only non-zero decimal components are displayed (%02g). To control the displayed decimal format of seconds, use a printf-style double format specifier instead of ss in the time notation string. For example, hh:mm:%02.02f

Stubs may be incremented by fractions of seconds, eg. stubs: inc 0.2 seconds

Key to notation codes

hhh = hours, elapsed time, no upper limit
hh = hours, 00 to 24 (00 to 11 for am/pm notation)
h = hours, 0 to 24, (0 to 11 for am/pm notation)
mm = minute 00 to 59
m = minute 0 to 59
ss = second 00.0 to < 60.0 (floating point, see above)
s = second 0.0 to < 60.0 (floating point, see above)
ai = am/pm notation (use A capitals e.g. AM or PM)

Notes

With am/pm notation noon is shown as eg. 12N; midnight is eg. 0AM or 12AM