Time range that crosses midnight?

🚧 Developers Coding Questions
1

What’s the best way to determine if the current time of day is between two values, specifically when those values cross midnight? For example:
if (currentTime is between 8PM and 3AM)

I’ve tried timeOfDayIsBetween, but it seems to compare the full DateTime object. So something like this:
timeOfDayIsBetween(timeToday("20:00"), timeToday("03:00"), new Date(), location.timeZone) return true when the current time is between 3AM and 8PM, rather than the other way around. (I may be wrong about that, but I think that’s what I’ve seen so far.)

I’ve done more complicated things like this:

def startToday = timeToday("20:00")
def endToday = timeToday("03:00")
if (endToday <= startToday) {
    use (TimeCategory) {
        endToday = endToday + 1.day
    }
}
    
if (timeOfDayIsBetween(startToday, endToday, new Date(), location.timeZone)

But that seems like overkill. Is there an easier way to do this?

2 
Boolean getTimeOk(firstTime, secondTime) {
   long currtime = now()
   long start = timeToday(firstTime, location.timeZone).time
   long stop = timeToday(secondTime, location.timeZone).time
   (start == stop && currTime >= start && currTime - start < 60000) || (start <= stop ? currTime >= start && currTime < stop : currTime < stop || currTime >= start)
}

It always does seem like overkill. Toss in sunrise and sunset and it gets even messier.

3 Likes
3

Ha, excellent! Thank you, sir. I’m sad there isn’t a built-in solution, but I’ll accept yours as the best available.

4

There may exist some easier way to do it. But I don't spend any time looking for it.

5

In webCoRE it helps sometimes to use the opposite condition when the times span midnight. That is, if the current time is NOT between 03:00 and 20:00 (which IS between 20:00 and 03:00, spanning midnight). That keeps the start and end times on the same day. Just a thought. Not sure if that helps.

1 Like