Duration Data type

Version: Available or changed with runtime version 1.0.

Represents the difference between two DateTimes. This value can be negative. It is stored as a 64-bit integer. The integer value is the number of milliseconds during the duration.

Instance methods

The following methods are available on instances of the Duration data type.

Method name	Description
ToText([Boolean])	Converts the value to a text. Equvilant to calling Format(value, 0, 0).

The following are examples of durations:

DateTime-DateTime=Duration

DateTime-Duration=DateTime

DateTime+Duration=DateTime

The value of the Duration data type can also be explicitly defined in milliseconds.

Example 1

This example shows how to calculate the difference between two DateTimes. This example is run on a computer with the Current Format in the Regional and Language Options set to English (United States).

var
    DateTime1: DateTime;
    DateTime2: DateTime;
    Duration: Duration;
begin
    DateTime1 := CreateDateTime(20090101D, 080000T); // January 1, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM  
    DateTime2 := CreateDateTime(20090505D, 133001T); // May 5, 2009 at 1:30:01 PM  
    Duration := DateTime2 - DateTime1;  
    Message(Format(Duration));  
end;

The message window displays the following:

124 days 4 hours 30 minutes 1 second

Example 2

The following example shows how to specify the duration of a timeout in milliseconds.

procedure GetDefaultTimeout(): Duration
var
     Timeout: Duration;
begin
    Timeout := 1000 * 60 * 60; // One hour
    exit(Timeout);
end

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