We Keep Coding

How to manipulate Ranges of Time of a Day

I'm working with an agenda in Java. I have stored in my database the day of the week, the start and end time of some labs availability.
Now I need to provide a service for a schedule system by showing only the unavailable times of the day. For example, if day one has start time 13:00 and end time 19:00, I need to return a range just like this:
[00:00 - 13:00, 19:00 - 23:59] . Remembering that a day can have more than a range available.
Is there any Java Class or API that could help me on subtracting these ranges?

My lib Time4J offers following solution for the subtraction problem:
ClockInterval fullDay = ClockInterval.between(PlainTime.of(0), PlainTime.of(24));
ClockInterval slot = ClockInterval.between(PlainTime.of(13, 0), PlainTime.of(19, 0));
IntervalCollection<PlainTime> icoll = IntervalCollection.onClockAxis().plus(fullDay);
List<ChronoInterval<PlainTime>> result = icoll.minus(slot).getIntervals();
The resulting list of half-open intervals (with open end) can be easily iterated through and gives the expected result {[T00:00/T13:00), [T19:00/T24:00)}. Every result interval can be converted to a standard ClockInterval, too. There are also various methods to print such intervals in a localized way. Furthermore, you might find the class DayPartitionBuilder interesting which allows to connect weekdays and time schedules in streaming, see the example given in the documentation.
About compatibility with java.time:
The between()-methods of ClockInterval also accept instances of java.time.LocalTime.
Every instance of PlainTime can be converted back to LocalTime by help of the method toTemporalAccessor() with the exception of the value 24:00 which exists in Time4J but not in java.time.LocalTime.

How to specify date and duration in one expression

I am trying to find notation for periodic event in ISO8601 format.
Can it be done as one expression?
For example, event starting at March 31 2017 at 17:25 with periodicity 1 hour:
2017-03-31T17:25:00Z/PT1H
Trying to parse this expression to Duration in Java:
java.time.Duration d = java.time.Duration.parse("2017-03-31T17:25:00Z/PT1H");
results in exception.

In Iso-8601, the expression "2017-03-31T17:25:00Z/PT1H" is not a recurrent interval but just a normal instant/moment-interval. If you look for recurrent intervals then you have to prefix it with "Rn/" where "n" is a positive integer (optional). Standard Java has no support for intervals so you have to either code your own workaround with string processing and partial parsing or you use a 3rd-party library like my one (Time4J):
MomentInterval interval = MomentInterval.parseISO("2017-03-31T17:25:00Z/PT1H");
System.out.println(interval); // [2017-03-31T17:25:00Z/2017-03-31T18:25:00Z)
See also the Javadoc for moment intervals. For recurrent intervals please have a look at this class IsoRecurrence.
Interoperability note: You can easily convert the Moment-components to java.time.Instant via the method toTemporalAccessor().

Print a Duration in human readable format by EL

First of all I'm new to java.time package.
I'm writing a webapp that need to work with specific times of the day and with several durations of events.
So I wrote my code using LocalTime and Duration classes of java.time package.
When I need to render their value in JSP it is very simple for LocalTime object (because .toString() returns a human readable vale), so I can just write ${startTime} and everything goes in the right way (e.g. it is rendered as 9:00).
The same approach doesn't work for Duration, because its representation is something like PT20M (in this case for 20 minutes).
Does it exist an elegant way to perform a human-readable conversion in JSP directly by EL?
Yes, I know I can convert the object in a string in my classes (before JSP), but I'm searching for the suggested approach (that I'm not able to find)... another point is that I not see an official "convert()" (or whatever else) method in Duration object... so I'm thinking I'm using the wrong object to map a duration of time (to add or subtract on LocalTimes).
Thank you.

Unfortunately there exists no elegant builtin way to format a Duration in Java 8. The best i have found is to use the method bobince describes in this answer:
Duration duration = Duration.ofHours(1).plusMinutes(20);
long s = duration.getSeconds();
System.out.println(String.format("%d:%02d:%02d", s/3600, (s%3600)/60, (s%60)));
Which prints:
1:20:00
The code will have to be tuned if you need longer durations.
I'm not sure what you mean that you are missing a convert method, but Duration is well suited for adding/subtracting on LocalTime. The methods LocalTime.plus() and LocalTime.minus() accepts Duration as argument.

If you're interested in words, apache commons will do the trick:
DurationFormatUtils.formatDurationWords(System.currentTimeMillis() - start, true, false))
2 days 1 hour 5 minutes 20 seconds
https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-lang/apidocs/org/apache/commons/lang3/time/DurationFormatUtils.html#formatDurationWords-long-boolean-boolean-

How to obtain current TAI time?

How can I obtain the current TAI time in milliseconds in Linux using either Java or C++?
The reason I need this is to be able to accurately take timestamps over a long period of time (on the order of years) and still be able to compare them, without worrying about leap seconds. It is possible for multiple measurements to take place during a leap second and all measurements need to be unambiguous, monotonically increasing, and linearly increasing. This will be a dedicated Linux server. This is for a scientific project which needs precision of about .5 seconds.
I do not currently wish to invest in a GPS timekeeper and hope to use NTP to pool.ntp.org in order to keep the system clock on track.
I have looked into the following solutions:
Java 8 or the ThreeTen Project
The only way to obtain a TAIInstant is to use an Instant and then convert it which, according to the specs, "Conversion from an Instant will not be completely accurate near a leap second in accordance with UTC-SLS." That in and of itself is not a big deal (in fact, using UTC-SLS would also be acceptable). However, using now() in the Instant class also seems to just be a wrapper for System.currentTimeMillis(), which makes me think that during the leap second, the time will still be ambiguous and the project will not actually give me TAI time. The Java 8 specifications also state:
Implementations of the Java time-scale using the JSR-310 API are not
required to provide any clock that is sub-second accurate, or that
progresses monotonically or smoothly. Implementations are therefore
not required to actually perform the UTC-SLS slew or to otherwise be
aware of leap seconds.
Using a right/? timezone
This seems like it would work, however I am not sure if the implementation is smart enough to continue working during a leap second or if System.currentTimeMillis() would even give TAI time. In other words, would the underlying implementation still use UTC, thus giving an ambiguous time during the leap second which is then converted to TAI, or does using a right/ timezone actually work with TAI using System.currentTimeMillis() always (ie even during leap second)?
Using CLOCK_TAI
I tried using CLOCK_TAI in the Linux kernel but found it to be completely identical to CLOCK_REALTIME in my test:
Code:
#include <iostream>
#include <time.h>
long sec(int clock)
{
struct timespec gettime_now;
clock_gettime(clock, &gettime_now);
return gettime_now.tv_sec;
}
int main()
{
std::cout << sec(0) << std::endl; // CLOCK_REALTIME
std::cout << sec(1) << std::endl; // CLOCK_MONOTONIC
std::cout << sec(11) << std::endl; // CLOCK_TAI
return 0;
}
The output was simply:
1427744797
6896
1427744797
Using CLOCK_MONOTONIC
The problem with this is that the timestamps need to remain valid and comparable even if the computer restarts.

CLOCK_REALTIME and CLOCK_TAI return the same because the kernel parameter tai_offset is zero.
Check by using adjtimex(timex tmx) and read the value. I think that ntpd will set it if it is new enough (>4.2.6) and has a leap second file. It may also be able to get it from upstream servers but I haven't been able to verify. The call adjtimex() can set tai_offset manually when run as root. You will need a new-ish man page for adjtimex to see the parameters to set. My debian man page was too old but the command worked.

In addition to the correct accepted answer I would also mention the free Java library Time4J (min version v4.1) as possible solution because
I have written it to fill a gap in Java world (java.time cannot do all),
other answers given so far only talk about C++ (but you also asked for Java),
it works according to the same principles described by #user3427419.
It uses a monotonic clock based on System.nanoTime() but even allows custom implementations via the interface TickProvider. For the purpose of calibration, you can either use net.time4j.SystemClock.MONOTONIC, or you use an SNTP-clock named SntpConnector which just needs some simple configuration to connect to any NTP-time-server you want. And thanks to the built-in leap-second-table Time4J can even show you the announced leap second at the end of this month - in ISO-8601-notation or even as formatted local timestamp string in any timezone (using i18n-module).
A recalibration (in case of NTP - reconnect) of the clocks is possible meaning the clocks can be adapted to intermediate time adjustments (although I strongly recommend not to do it during your measurements or during a leap second). Although such a reconnect of an SNTP clock would normally cause the time stepping back in some cases Time4J tries to apply a smoothing algorithm (if activated in clock configuration) to ensure monotone behaviour. Detailed documentation is available online.
Example:
// Step 0: configure your clock
String ntpServer = "ptbtime1.ptb.de";
SntpConnector clock = new SntpConnector(ntpServer);
// Step 1: Timestamp start of the program and associate it with a counter
clock.connect();
// Step 2: Use the counter for sequential measurements at fixed intervals
Moment m = clock.currentTime();
System.out.println(m); // possible output = 2015-06-30T23:59:60,123456789Z
// Step 3: Timestamp new counter value(s) as necessary to keep your data adequately synced
clock.connect();
I doubt if any C++-based solution is more simple. More code demonstrations can also be studied on DZone.
Update (answer to question in comment):
A slightly simplified solution how to automatically download the given IETF-resource for new leap seconds and to translate it into a Time4J-specific format might look like this:
URL url = new URL("https://www.ietf.org/timezones/data/leap-seconds.list");
BufferedReader br =
new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(url.openStream(), "US-ASCII"));
String line;
PlainDate expires = null;
Moment ntpEpoch = PlainTimestamp.of(1900, 1, 1, 0, 0).atUTC();
List<PlainDate> events = new ArrayList<PlainDate>();
try {
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
if (line.startsWith("##")) {
long expraw = Long.parseLong(line.substring(2).trim());
expires = ntpEpoch.plus(
expraw, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
.toZonalTimestamp(ZonalOffset.UTC).toDate();
continue;
} else if (line.startsWith("#")) {
continue; // comment line
}
// this works for some foreseeable future
long epoch = Long.parseLong(line.substring(0, 10));
// this is no leap second
// but just the official introduction of modern UTC scale
if (epoch == 2272060800L) {
continue;
}
// -1 because we don't want to associate
// the leap second with the following day
PlainDate event =
ntpEpoch.plus(epoch - 1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
.toZonalTimestamp(ZonalOffset.UTC).toDate();
events.add(event); // we don't assume any negative leap seconds here for simplicity
}
} finally {
br.close();
}
// now let's write the result into time4j-format
// use a location relative to class path of main program (see below)
String path = "C:/work/leapseconds.txt";
Writer writer = new FileWriter(new File(path));
String sep = System.getProperty("line.separator");
try {
for (PlainDate event : events) {
writer.write(event + ", +" + sep);
}
writer.write("#expires=" + expires + sep);
} finally {
writer.close();
}
System.out.println(
"Leap second file was successfully written from IETF-resource.");
// And finally, we can start the main program in a separate process
// with the system property "net.time4j.scale.leapseconds.path"
// set to our leapsecond file path (must be relative to class path)
Some notes:
I recommend to write this code as subprogram called by a simple batch program in order to avoid the main program being dependent on internet connectivity. This batch file would finally call the main program with the mentioned system property. If you set this property then the leap seconds will be read from the file specified there, and any eventually available tzdata-module would then stop to yield any concurrent leap second informations.

The reason I need this is to be able to accurately take timestamps
over a long period of time (on the order of years) and still be able
to compare them, without worrying about leap seconds. It is possible
for multiple measurements to take place during a leap second and all
measurements need to be unambiguous, monotonically increasing, and
linearly increasing.
Then your design is suboptimal. You cannot use time and then somehow meddle through leap seconds. This actually comes up often enough and people fall into the same trap of timestamping measurements using wall clock.
Timestamp start of the program and associate it with a counter
Use the counter for sequential measurements at fixed intervals
Timestamp new counter value(s) as necessary to keep your data adequately synced
If you avoid timestamping for the 1 second that leapsecond can occur (midnight!), you are home free because those can be adjusted later.
Now if you insist on using TAI without counter, all you need is a table with leap seconds that need to be accounted for. Then just use monotonic time. There is also libraries that can do this for you, but they may be out of date so you'll have to maintain them yourself,
http://skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/tai.html

You have to implement a TAI clock based on C++ std::steady_clock or similar. To synchronize your TAI clock you could rely on GPS or NTP.
Option TAI from NTP: Your TAI implementation would need knowledge about leap seconds. Probably NTP protocol or referenced resources are the most reliable sources of current and future leap seconds.
Option TAI from GPS: GPS clock has a fixed offset to TAI, you do not have to mess with leap seconds

java get duration from database

table structure:
sysdurationtimeday , sysdurationtimehour, sysdurationtimeminute
1, 12,10
3, 23,10
0, 0,10
i have these 3 fields from database, after getting these 3 values, what is the technique that i can use do cast to which Java Object? (maybe Calendar.class, TimeStamp.class) ?
and use it to compared with record is spent less than 1 day, more than 1 day + less than 3 days. etc?

As long as you're talking durations and not absolute times, this is pretty easy. Just express the time in a convenient unit, say seconds:
time_in_seconds = 86400*sysdurationtimeday +
3600*sysdurationtimehour +
60*sysdurationtimeminute
In Java the standard way to represent this is actually as a long value in milliseconds, ala System.currentTimeMillis().
All the standard Java classes are intended to handle absolute times and need to deal with daylight savings, leap years, and all that crap. At least with the data you gave us, you don't have the required info anyway: there's no way to tell if the day was a daylight savings day and therefore took 23 or 25 hours instead of 24.

I would prefer my own class, overriding the "essential" methods.
public class SysDuration implements Comparable {
int day;
int hour;
int min;
public SysDuration(int day,int hour,int min) {
}
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
}
public int hashCode() {
}
public int compareTo(Object obj) {
}
public boolean spendLess(SysDuration dur) {
}
}

Lots of good answers already.
A sugegstion, perhaps out of scope, if you use durations in java I would prefer to
just calculate and store this in one variable, typically a long in milliseconds
if this resolution is good enough. The splitting in 3 variables usually
make most of the code more complicated.
Calculations are easier and intergartion with libs such as jodatime and similar will be
even more simple.

If you literally want "more than 1 day", that is there's no rounding so d=1, h=23, m=59 gives you 1 day, not 2 days then you can just use sysdurationtimeday and completely ignore hours and minutes. (That assumes you don't have more than 24 in sysdurationtimehour).
Classes such as Calendar don't help, they are for manipulating actual dates, you already are working in durations.

Jodatime supports durations and then you get the operations needed for free.
If you are hesitant to add another dependency and learning curve, I would create a little custom class with a field storing the duration as a number in the desired precision. Then add some methods to do your comparisons or return a Calendar object or a Date aded and subtracted with your duration.
My guess is this will end up being cleaner than using the standard Java API's which always end up in complicated, clunky code when you start manipulating time.