currentDate

currentTime

dayOf

diffTime

formatDate

formatDateTime

formatRFC1123

formatTime

formatTimeStr

hourOf

listToTime

minuteOf

monthName

monthOf

now

nowSecs

secondsOf

secsToTime

tickCount

timeToList

timeToSecs

weekDayName

weekDayOf

yearOf

Example:

print "Today's date is " currentDate() & ".";
>> Today's date is 11/28/2000.

See Also:

• formatDate
• formatDateTime
• formatRFC1123

Returns the current time using the server's built-in clock in the format HH:MM:SS AM/PM. Format this value for display or perform time calculations using functions which accept a time-value as a parameter.

Example:

print "The current time is " currentTime() & ".";
>> The current time is 04:35:28 PM.

See Also:

• formatTime

Parameter	Description
datetime-value	formatted datetime string

Accepts a formatted datetime-value, such as is returned by now(), and returns the day-of-month segment of that value as an integer.

Example:

the_date = dayOf(now());
print the_date;

>> 28

See Also:

• weekDayOf

Parameter	Description
datetime-value1	(now) formatted datetime string 1
datetime-value2	(then) formatted datetime string 2

Returns the difference between two datetime values in seconds. If datetime-value2 is chronologically after datetime-value1, the returned result will be negative. The result is a floating point value in order to gain the greater precision of that data type. The actual value will always be a whole number.

The example below illustrates how to compute a rough benchmark of the time required for a template to execute. It then appends the result to WebSiphon's console log window. Compare with the same operation using tickCount() which provides a more precise benchmark.

Example:

start_time = now();
// This is just an example, the actual contents of your template with 
// HTML and SiphonScript would go here.
elapsed = diffTime(now(), start_time);
appendLog(template_uri & " " & (elapsed as float(,2)) & "s exec");

Parameter	Description
date-value	formatted date string
format-string	format specifier string

Returns the formatted date segment of the date-value parameter using the web server's localized date format setting (as specified on the server computer's OS Control Panel). The format-string parameter may be one of "long", "short", or "abbrev".

This function is used to create human-readable content, and should not be used to obtain a date value suitable for use as a paramater to other functions.

If a datetime value is provided in date-value, the time segment is ignored.

Examples:

1. print formatDate(currentDate(), "long");
   >> Friday, September 6, 1996

2. print formatDate(now(), "short");
   >> 9/6/96

3. print formatDate(now(), "abbrev");
   >> Fri, Sep 6, 1996

See Also:

• currentDate
• formatDateTime
• formatTime

Parameter	Description
datetime-value	formatted datetime string
format-string	format specifier string
want-seconds	include seconds in output? (true/false)

Provided a datetime-value, returns a formatted datetime string using the web server's localized datetime format setting (as specified on the server computer's OS Control Panel). The format-string parameter may be one of "long", "short", or "abbrev". The want-seconds boolean indicates whether or not to include the seconds in the returned output.

This function is used to create human-readable content, and should not be used to obtain a datetime value suitable for use as a paramater to other functions.

Examples:

1. print formatDateTime(now(), "long", true);
   >> Tuesday, November 28, 2000 4:25:11 PM

2. print formatDateTime(now(), "abbrev", true);
   >> Tue, Nov 28, 2000 4:25:11 PM

3. print formatDateTime(now(), "short", true);
   >> 11/28/00 4:25:11 PM

See Also:

• formatDate
• formatTime
• formatTimeStr

Parameter	Description
datetime-value	formatted datetime string

Given a datetime-value, first converts to a Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, or UT) value and then returns an RFC1123-formatted datetime string as a result.

Note that if you need a datetime string suitable for use as an HTTP cookie expiration value, then you'll need to further modify this value to include dashes within the date as a delimiter. Refer to setCookie()'s documentation for further details.

Example:

print formatRFC1123("11/03/1997 12:01:15 PM");
>> Mon, 03 Nov 1997 18:01:15 GMT

See Also:

• setCookie

Parameter	Description
time	formated time string
want-seconds	include seconds in output? (true/false)

Returns the formatted time segment of the time-value parameter using the web server's localized time format setting (as specified on the server computer's OS Control Panel). The want-seconds boolean indicates whether or not to include the seconds in the returned output.

This function is used to create human-readable content, and should not be used to obtain a time value suitable for use as a parameter to other functions.

If a datetime value is provided in time-value, the date segement is ignored.

Examples:

print formatTime(currentTime(), true);
>> 6:23:07 PM

print formatTime(now(), false);
>> 6:23 PM

See Also:

• currentTime
• formatDate
• formatDateTime

Parameter	Description
time	formatted datetime string
format	format specifier string (see table)

For those who need utmost control in formatting datetime values, this very flexible though somewhat cryptic function returns the formatted datetime-value parameter as specified in the format-string. The format parameter may contain any combination of the specifier strings listed in the table below.

Valid string specifier tokens for format-string:

Specifier	Formatted As
%a	abbreviated weekday name
%A	full weekday name
%b	abbreviated month name
%B	full month name
%d	day of the month as a decimal number (01 - 31)
%H	hour (24-hour clock), as a decimal number (00 - 23)
%I	hour (12-hour clock), as a decimal number (01 - 12)
%j	day of the year, as a decimal number (001 - 366)
%m	month, as a decimal number (01 - 12)
%M	minute, as a decimal number (00 - 59)
%p	AM/PM designation for a 12-hour clock
%S	second, as a decimal number (00 - 59)
%U	week number of the year (with Sunday as the first day of the first week), as a decimal number (00 - 53)
%w	weekday, as a decimal number (0 [Sunday] - 6 [Saturday])
%W	week number of the year (with Monday as the first day of the first week), as a decimal number (00 - 53)
%y	year without century, as a decimal number (00 - 99)
%Y	year with century, as a decimal number
%%	%

Example:

print formatTimeStr(now(), "%A, %B %d, %Y %I:%M:%S %p");
>> Friday, September 6, 1996 06:23:07 PM

Parameter	Description
time-value	formatted time string

Returns the hour segment of time-value as an integer. The returned value is based on a 24-hour clock, so values less than 12 are considered AM and values greater than 12 are PM.

Example:

the_hour = hourOf(now());
print the_hour;

>> 14

Parameter	Description
datetime-list	a structured list of datetime fields (see table below)

Converts a structured list containing the individual datetime fields into a formatted datetime string suitable for passing to other date and time functions (in the format "MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM/PM").

The datetime-list parameter is a list with the following structure:

List Item	Field
1	year with century, as a decimal number
2	month, as a decimal number (01 - 12)
3	day of month, as a decimal number (01 - 31)
4	hour, as a decimal number (00 - 23)
5	minute, as a decimal number (00 - 59)
6	second, as a decimal number (00 - 59)
...	all additional list items are ignored

See Also:

• timeToList

Parameter	Description
time-value	formatted time string

Returns the minute segment of time-value as an integer.

Example:

the_minute = minuteOf(now());
print the_minute;

>> 45

Parameter	Description
month-number	numerical month as integer (1-12)

Given a month as a number (1-12) in month-integer, this function will return the actual name of the month using the web server's localized date format setting (as specified on the server computer's OS Control Panel).

Example:

print monthName(monthOf(now()));

>> November

See Also:

• monthOf

Parameter	Description
time-value	formatted time string

Returns the month segment of time-value as an integer.

Example:

the_month = monthOf(now());
print the_month;

>> 11

See Also:

• monthName

Returns a string containing the current date and time with seconds, in that order, with a space in between. The format of the returned datetime string is a standard international time string in the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM/PM.

This function returns a datetime value suitable for use as a parameter to other Date and Time functions.

Example:

print "Right now it is " now() & ".";
>> Right now it is 09/03/2000 10:15:23 AM.

Returns the current time in seconds since January 1, 1904.

Time values expressed in seconds relative to a common point in time are helpful when you need to compute time values, such as scheduling or expiration logic.

See Also:

• secsToTime
• timeToSecs

Parameter	Description
time-value	formatted time string

Returns the seconds segment of time-value as an integer.

Example:

the_seconds = secondsOf(now());
print the_seconds;

>> 47

Parameter	Description
time-value-seconds	time value, as seconds since January 1, 1904

Converts a time value in seconds since January 1, 1904 to a formatted datetime string suitable for use with any other date and time functions.

See Also:

• timeToSecs

Returns the number of ticks (60ths of a second) since the computer was turned on. The tick count value is useful for generating pseudo-random numbers such as session IDs or recording the amount of time needed for a template to execute.

Example:

start_ticks = tickCount();
// This is just an example, the contents of your template with 
// HTML and SiphonScript would go here.
elapsed = (tickCount() - start_ticks);
seconds_elapsed = elapsed / 60;
appendLog("This template took " & (seconds_elapsed as float(,2)) & 
          " seconds to execute which is " & elapsed & " ticks.");

Parameter	Description
datetime-value	formatted datetime string

Converts a standard datetime string into a structured list containing the individual time and date fields. This, in conjunction with listToTime(), is a useful method of incrementing or decrementing a time value by a specific amount.

The returned datetime-list has the following structure:

List Item	Field
1	year with century, as a decimal number
2	month, as a decimal number (01 - 12)
3	day of month, as a decimal number (01 - 31)
4	hour, as a decimal number (00 - 23)
5	minute, as a decimal number (00 - 59)
6	second, as a decimal number (00 - 59)
7	day of week, as a decimal number (1 [Sunday] - 7 [Saturday])
8	day of year, as a decimal number (001 - 366)
9	week of year (with Sunday as the first day of the first week), as a decimal number (01 - 52)
10	is PM? 0 = AM; 1 = PM

See Also:

• listToTime

Parameter	Description
datetime-value	formatted datetime string

Converts a standard datetime string to the number of seconds since January 1, 1904, expressed as an integer but returned as a float to gain greater precision affored by the floating point data type.

See Also:

• nowSecs
• secsToTime

Parameter	Description
weekday-number	numerical day as integer (1-7)

Given a weekday as a number (1-7) in weekday-number, this function will return the actual name of the weekday using the web server's localized date format setting (as specified on the server computer's OS Control Panel).

Example:

print weekDayName(weekDayOf(now()));

>> Tuesday

See Also:

• weekDayOf

Parameter	Description
datetime-value	formatted datetime string

Returns the week day segment of datetime-value. Rather than returning the actual date as in dayOf(), this function returns the week day number (1 [Sunday] - 7 [Saturday]) as an integer.

Example:

the_weekday = weekDayOf(now());
print the_weekday;

>> 3

See Also:

• weekDayName

Parameter	Description
datetime-value	formatted datetime string

Returns the year segment of datetime-value as an integer.

Example:

the_year = yearOf(now());
print the_year;

>> 1997