RE: SAG-FO-02 follow-up: Durations

Michael:

Thank you for your suggestions re. the two subtypes of durations in your
note below.

David Carlisle supported these suggestions in
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-qt-comments/2003Nov/0216.html

 

The joint XML Query and XSL WGs discussed these suggestions in the
meeting on Jan 19, 2004 and decided not to adopt them.

As you know, there is a long thread of mail on this subject that
discusses why some people in the WG were opposed to these suggestions.

 

I trust you will be agreeable to this decision by the WGs.

 

All the best, Ashok 

________________________________

From: public-qt-comments-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-qt-comments-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Kay, Michael
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 3:22 AM
To: public-qt-comments@w3.org
Subject: SAG-FO-02 follow-up: Durations

 

In comment SAG-FO-02 [1] Software AG proposed a radical simplification
of the operators and functions provided for handling durations, dates,
and times.

[1]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-qt-comments/2003Jun/0087.html


 

The ideas behind the "durations" part of this proposal were discussed at
the joint WG meeting on 15 September 2003. Although there were some
reservations expressed both on the technical content and on the
feasibility of making such a substantial change at this stage in the
process, there was sufficient enthusiasm to ask for a detailed change
proposal to be prepared for consideration. It was suggested that
although the WG might not be able to make a decision on this change
proposal in time for the next draft, it might solicit public feedback on
the proposal in its own right. 

The proposal follows. I have used section numbers from an internal
editor's draft dated 3 Sep 2003, but I believe there are no material
differences from the last published WD in the affected areas.

 

This note is a detailed proposal for implementing the replacement of
functions and operators on the two data types xdt:dayTimeDuration and
xdt:yearMonthDuration by functions and operators that represent these
quantities by numbers.

 

The rationale for this proposal is as follows: 

* It significantly reduces the number of functions, and the number of
special cases that need to be handled by polymorphic functions such as
sum() and avg()

* It avoids the need to introduce new data types beyond the types
already defined in XML Schema 

* It enables durations to be manipulated using the full power of all the
numeric operators and functions 

* It thus brings durations into line with other units of measure such as
distances, weights, temperatures and voltages 

* It makes it much easier to perform computations such as: 

   calculating an average speed by dividing the distance travelled by
the difference between the finish time and start time

   calculating a productivity measure by dividing the number of work
items processed by the length of time taken to process them

   calculating a payment by multiplying a duration by an hourly rate. 

   calculating the ratio between two durations. 

  Two of these use cases are explored in more detail at the end of the
proposal. 

* It is well aligned with future directions being discussed by the
Schema WG, without being dependent on any changes to XML Schema.

The general thrust of the proposal is that in nearly all computations
involving durations, it is appropriate to use the S.I. unit of time,
namely the second, and to express the number of seconds as a value of
type xs:double. In some calculations involving civil time using the
Gregorian calendar, it is more appropriate to express a duration as a
number of calendar months, or as the combination of months and seconds.
All other units of time encountered in the Gregorian calendar can
readily be converted into months or seconds: for example a year is 12
months, and a day is 86400 seconds.

Functions are provided to convert between values of the xs:duration type
defined in XML Schema and a (months, seconds) pair. All computations
involving durations, other than those that also involve dates and times,
rely entirely on numeric arithmetic. Similarly, computations that add
durations to a date or time express the duration as a numeric quantity.
Timezones are represented as a displacement from UTC measured as an
integer number of seconds.

 

The changes proposed are as follows. 

DATA MODEL 

3.6.1: timezones are now represented as an integer number of seconds,
not as an xdt:dayTimeDuration 

 

FUNCTIONS AND OPERATORS 

This uses the section numbering of the 3 September 2003 internal draft. 

1.6 xs:dateTime, xs:date and xs:time values 

Change this section as follows: 

xs:dateTime, xs:date and xs:time values are represented in the [XQuery
1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model] as tuples: a normalized value with
timezone Z and a timezone represented as a number of seconds difference
from UTC, expressed as a value of type xs:integer. Lexical
representations of xs:dateTime, xs:date and xs:time that have a timezone
are converted to timezone Z as defined by [XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes]
and the timezone in the lexical representation is converted to an
xs:integer value (for example, the timezone +01:00 is represented as
+3600). Lexical representations that do not contain a timezone are given
a normalized value with the timezone Z and the timezone part of the
value set to the empty sequence "()".

1.6.1 Examples 

*       A dateTime with lexical representation 1999-05-31T05:00:00 has a
value represented by the tuple (1999-05-31T05:00:00Z, ())

*       A dateTime with lexical representation 1999-05-31T13:20:00-05:00
has a value represented by the tuple (1999-05-31T18:20:00Z, -18000)

 

9.1 Duration Date and Time Types 

Delete the paragraphs: 

"In addition, they are defined on the [9.2 Two Totally Ordered Subtypes
of Duration]: 

    * xdt:yearMonthDuration 
    * xdt:dayTimeDuration 

No operators are defined on the [XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes] datatype
xs:duration. Appendix C.5 Working With xs:duration Values discusses how
to work with xs:duration values. "

Replace them with: 

The elapsed time between two dates, times, or dateTimes is generally
handled as a number of seconds, expressed as an xs:double. Some
functions are also provided that manipulate a duration as an integer
number of months. All arithmetic, comparison, and sorting of durations
is achieved by expressing the duration as an xs:integer number of months
plus an xs:double number of seconds, and then manipulating these values
using conventional numeric arithmetic.

Note: there are two reasons that xs:double has been chosen to represent
the number of seconds rather than xs:decimal. Firstly, floating point
arithmetic is generally preferred when performing calculations involving
units of measure on a continuous scale. Secondly, by using xs:double as
the expected type of a duration value, we take advantage of the XPath
numeric promotion rules, which allow the value to be supplied as an
xs:integer, xs:float, or xs:decimal as well as an xs:double. 

9.1.1 CONFORMANCE NOTE 

Delete the paragraph starting "The value spaces of the two totally
ordered subtypes of xs:duration..." 

9.2 Two totally ordered subtypes of Duration 

Delete the existing section. Replace it with a new section: 

(9.2) Functions on xs:duration values 

In [XML Schema] an xs:duration is defined as a 6-tuple with numeric
components representing the number of years, months, days, hours,
minutes, and seconds. Although the value representing two years is
distinct in the value space from the value representing 24 months, the
functions defined here treat these values as being equivalent. Thus, for
all computational purposes, a duration is regarded as a 2-tuple
consisting of an xs:integer number of months and an xs:double number of
seconds. Either both these numbers will be positive, or both will be
negative, or at least one will be zero. The number of months is obtained
as (12*years + months), while the number of seconds is obtained as
(((((24*days + hours)*60) + minutes)*60) + seconds).

9.2.1 get-months-from-duration 

fn:get-months-from-duration ($arg1 as xs:duration) as xs:integer 

Returns the number of months represented by the years and months
components of the duration, that is, the value of 12*years + months.

EXAMPLE 

fn:get-months-from-duration(xs:duration('P1Y8M5D')) returns 20 

9.2.2 get-seconds-from-duration 

fn:get-seconds-from-duration ($arg1 as xs:duration) as xs:double 

Returns the number of seconds represented by the days, hours, minutes,
and seconds components of the duration, that is, the value of
(((((24*days + hours)*60) + minutes)*60) + seconds).

EXAMPLE 

fn:get-seconds-from-duration(xs:duration('P1Y8M5DT12H30M')) returns
477000e0 

9.2.3 make-duration 

fn:make-duration($months as xs:integer, $seconds as xs:double) returns
xs:duration 

Returns a normalized xs:duration value containing the given number of
months and the given number of seconds. An xs:duration value is
normalized by ensuring that the number of months is less than 12, the
number of hours is less than 24, the number of minutes is less than 60,
and the number of seconds is less than 60.

Note: there is no similar limit on the number of days or years. 

It is an error [make-duration: components have different sign] if the
$months argument is greater than zero and the $seconds argument is less
than zero, or if the $months argument is less than zero and the $seconds
argument is greater than zero.

EXAMPLES 

fn:make-duration(18, 477000) returns the xs:duration P1Y6M5DT12H30M 

fn:make-duration(240, 0) returns the xs:duration P20Y 

fn:make-duration(0, -90.25) returns the xs:duration -PT1M30.25S 

 

9.3 Comparison of Duration, Date, and Time Values 

Delete the functions: 

op:yearMonthDuration-equal 
op:yearMonthDuration-less-than 
op:yearMonthDuration-greater-than 
op:dayTimeDuration-equal 
op:dayTimeDuration-less-than 
op:dayTimeDuration-greater-than 

from the table; and delete the corresponding sections that define these
functions (9.3.1 to 9.3.6). 

In the paragraph after the table, delete the sentence: "A full
complement of comparison and arithmetic functions are defined on the two
subtypes of duration described in 9.2 Two Totally Ordered Subtypes of
Duration.".

9.4 Component Extraction Functions on Duration, Date, and Time Values 

Delete the functions: 

fn:get-years-from-yearMonthDuration 
fn:get-months-from-yearMonthDuration 
fn:get-days-from-dayTimeDuration 
fn:get-hours-from-dayTimeDuration 
fn:get-minutes-from-dayTimeDuration 
fn:get-seconds-from-dayTimeDuration 

from the table, and delete the corresponding subsections that define
these functions (9.4.1 to 9.4.6). 

9.5 Arithmetic Functions on xdt:yearMonthDuration and
xdt:dayTimeDuration 

Delete the entire section (8 functions in the op: namespace) 

9.6 Adjusting timezones on dateTime, date, and time values 

Change these functions so that the timezone is expressed as an
xs:integer number of seconds, representing the displacement from UTC.

In all the function signatures, the timezone value changes type from
xdt:dayTimeDuration to xs:integer. 

In 9.6.1, 9.6.2, and 9.6.3, change the sentence "A dynamic error is
raised (invalid timezone value) if $timezone is less than -PT14H00M or
greater than PT14H00M." to "A dynamic error is raised (invalid timezone
value) if $timezone is less than -50400 or greater than +50400
(representing a range from 14 hours before UTC to 14 hours after UTC)".

In 9.6.1.1, 9.6.1.2, and 9.6.1.3, change the examples accordingly. 

9.7 Adding and Subtracting Durations From dateTime, date, and time 

Replace the entire section, as follows: 

These functions support adding or subtracting a duration value to or
from an xs:dateTime, an xs:date or an xs:time value. Most of these
functions handle a duration as a number of seconds, expressed as a
number of type xs:double. Some functions also support durations
expressed as an xs:integer number of months.

A subtraction operator is provided to find the difference between two
values of type xs:dateTime, xs:date or xs:time. The result is the number
of seconds that separate the two instants in time, expressed as a value
of type xs:double. If either of the arguments to this operator is an
xs:dateTime, xs:date or xs:time that does not contain an explicit
timezone then, for the purpose of the operation, an implicit timezone,
provided by the evaluation context, is assumed to be present as part of
the value.

Operators are provided to add or subtract a duration expressed in
seconds to or from an xs:dateTime, an xs:date or an xs:time value. The
effect of these operations is to first convert the given number of
seconds into an xs:duration value, and then apply the rules in Appendix
E of [XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes].

A function is also provided to find the difference in months between two
values of type xs:date. Again, if either of the arguments to this
operator is an xs:date that does not contain an explicit timezone then,
for the purpose of the operation, an implicit timezone, provided by the
evaluation context, is assumed to be present as part of the value. An
interval in months between two xs:dateTime values can be found by
casting the xs:dateTime values to xs:date.

A function is provided to add a duration expressed as an integer number
of months to a value of type xs:date. The effect of this operation is to
first convert the given number of months into an xs:duration value, and
then apply the rules in Appendix E of [XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes].

 

9.7.1 op:subtract-dateTimes 

op:subtract-dateTimes($arg1 as xs:dateTime, $arg2 as xs:dateTime) as
xs:double 

Returns an xs:double value that corresponds to the number of seconds
between the normalized value of $arg1 and the normalized value of $arg2.
If either argument is the empty sequence, returns the empty sequence. If
the normalized value of $arg1 precedes in time the normalized value of
$arg2, the returned value is a negative number.

 

9.7.1.1 Examples 

    * op:subtract-dateTimes(xs:dateTime("2000-10-30T11:12:00"),
xs:dateTime("1999-11-28T09:00:00")) returns 29124720e0. 

 

9.7.2 op:subtract-dates 

op:subtract-dates($arg1 as xs:date, $arg2 as xs:date) as xs:double 

Returns the number of seconds between the normalized value of $arg1 and
the normalized value of $arg2. If either argument is the empty sequence,
returns the empty sequence. If the normalized value of $arg1 precedes in
time the normalized value of $arg2, the returned value is a negative
number.

Note: the difference in days between the two dates can be obtained by
dividing the result by 86400 (that is, 24*60*60). The difference is not
necessarily a whole number of days, because the dates may be in
different timezones.

 

9.7.2.1 Examples 

  * op:subtract-dates(xs:date("2000-10-30"), xs:date("1999-11-28"))
returns 29116800e0. 

 

9.7.3 op:subtract-times 

op:subtract-times($arg1 as xs:time, $arg2 as xs:time) as xs:double 

Returns the number of seconds between the normalized value of $arg2 and
the normalized value of $arg1. If either argument is the empty sequence,
returns the empty sequence. The result is greater than or equal to zero
and less than 86400; that is, the subtraction is performed modulo the
length of a day.

 

9.7.3.1 Examples 

 Assume that the evaluation context provides an implicit timezone value
of -5:00. 

    * op:subtract-times(xs:time("11:12:00Z"), xs:time("04:00:00"))
returns 7920e0 (corresponding to 2 hours and 12 minutes). 

9.7.4 op:add-seconds-to-dateTime 

op:add-seconds-to-dateTime($arg1 as xs:dateTime, $arg2 as xs:double) as
xs:dateTime 

Returns a value of type xs:dateTime that represents the instant in time
that is $arg2 seconds later than $arg1; or if $arg2 is negative, the
instant that is fn:abs($arg2) seconds earlier. The timezone of the
result will be the same as the timezone of $arg1, or absent if the
timezone of $arg1 is absent.

9.7.4.1 Examples 

op:add-seconds-to-dateTime(xs:dateTime('2003-01-31T23:00:00'), 7200)
returns the xs:dateTime 2003-02-01T01:00:00 

9.7.5 op:add-seconds-to-date 

op:add-seconds-to-date($arg1 as xs:date, $arg2 as xs:double) as xs:date 

Returns a value of type xs:date that contains the instant in time that
is $arg2 seconds later than the start of the date represented by $arg1;
or if $arg2 is negative, the instant that is fn:abs($arg2) seconds
earlier. The timezone of the result will be the same as the timezone of
$arg1, or absent if the timezone of $arg1 is absent.

9.7.5.1 Examples 

op:add-seconds-to-date(xs:date('2003-01-31'), 86400) returns the xs:date
2003-02-01 

op:add-seconds-to-date(xs:date('2003-01-31'), 86399) returns the xs:date
2003-01-31 

 

9.7.6 op:add-seconds-to-time 

op:add-seconds-to-time($arg1 as xs:time, $arg2 as xs:double) as xs:time 

Returns a value of type xs:time that represents the time that is $arg2
seconds later than the time represented by $arg1; or if $arg2 is
negative, the instant that is fn:abs($arg2) seconds earlier. This
effectively does arithmetic with a modulus of 24 hours. The timezone of
the result will be the same as the timezone of $arg1, or absent if the
timezone of $arg1 is absent.

9.7.6.1 Examples 

op:add-seconds-to-time(xs:time('T12:00:00'), 7200) returns the xs:time
T14:00:00 

op:add-seconds-to-time(xs:time('T23:00:00'), 7200) returns the xs:time
T01:00:00 

op:add-seconds-to-time(xs:time('T01:00:00'), -7200) returns the xs:time
T23:00:00 

 

9.7.7 op:subtract-seconds-from-dateTime 

op:subtract-seconds-from-dateTime($arg1 as xs:dateTime, $arg2 as
xs:double) as xs:dateTime 

Returns the same result as op:add-seconds-to-dateTime($arg1, -$arg2). 

9.7.7.1 Example 

op:subtract-seconds-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime('2003-01-31T23:00:00'),
7200) returns the xs:dateTime 2003-01-31T21:00:00 

 

9.7.8 op:subtract-seconds-from-date 

op:subtract-seconds-from-date ($arg1 as xs:date, $arg2 as xs:double) as
xs:date 

Returns the same result as op:add-seconds-to-date($arg1, -$arg2). 

9.7.8.1 Example 

op:subtract-seconds-from-date(xs:date('2003-02-01'), 86400) returns the
xs:date 2003-01-31 

 

9.7.9 op:subtract-seconds-from-time 

op:subtract-seconds-from-time($arg1 as xs:time, $arg2 as xs:double) as
xs:time 

Returns the same result as op:add-seconds-to-time($arg1, -$arg2). 

9.7.9.1 Example 

op:subtract-seconds-from-time(xs:time('T01:00:00'), 3600) returns the
time T00:00:00 

op:subtract-seconds-from-time(xs:time('T01:00:00'), 3601) returns the
time T23:59:59 
  

 

9.7.10 fn:add-months-to-date 

fn:add-months-to-date($arg1 as xs:date, $arg2 as xs:integer) as xs:date 

Returns a value of type xs:date representing the date that is $arg2
months later than $arg1; or if $arg2 is negative, the instant that is
fn:abs($arg2) months earlier. 

The algorithm used by this function is to convert the number of months
to a value of type xs:duration by calling the function fn:make-duration
with $arg2 as the first argument and zero as the second argument, and
then to apply the algorithm given in Appendix E of [XML Schema Part 2:
Datatypes].

9.7.10.1 Examples 

fn:add-months-to-date(xs:date('2003-10-05'), 10) returns the date
2004-08-05 

fn:add-months-to-date(xs:date('2003-10-05'), -3) returns the date
2003-07-05 

fn:add-months-to-date(xs:date('2003-10-31'), 4) returns the date
2004-02-29 

 

9.7.11 fn:subtract-dates-giving-months 

fn:subtract-dates-giving-months($arg1 as xs:date, $arg2 as xs:date) as
xs:integer 

If $arg2 is later in time than $arg1, the function returns the largest
integer N such that fn:add-months-to-date($arg2, N) is less than or
equal to $arg1.

Otherwise, returns the value of  -
fn:subtract-dates-giving-months($arg2, $arg1). 

9.7.11.1 Examples 

fn:subtract-dates-giving-months(xs:date('2003-10-10'),
xs:date(2003-09-09')) returns 1 

fn:subtract-dates-giving-months(xs:date('2003-10-10'),
xs:date(2004-09-09')) returns -10 

 

15.3 Aggregate functions 

Delete all mentions of duration types in the specifications of these
examples, and in the examples of their use. 

 

16.8 implicit-timezone 

Change the signature to return xs:integer. Indicate in the description
that the timezone is returned as an integer number of seconds
displacement from UTC.

17.1 Casting Table 

Remove the rows and columns relating to xdt:dayTimeDuration and
xdt:yearMonthDuration from the table. Remove the explanation of the
labels dTD and yMD.

17.4 Casting within a branch of the type hierarchy 

Delete " and 17.9 Casting to duration types for rules regarding casting
to xdt:yearMonthDuration and xdt:dayTimeDuration." at the end of the
section.

17.9 Casting to duration types 

Delete this section. 

Appendix C.5 

This section is replaced with the following: 

This document does not define equality on xs:duration values. Nor does
it define other comparison functions on such values. Users wanting to
work with xs:duration values should convert the duration into a number
of seconds and/or months using the functions fn:get-months-from-duration
and fn:get-seconds-from-duration; the reverse conversion can be achieved
using the function fn:make-duration.

One way of comparing two xs:duration values for equality is to compare
their months and seconds components separately and return equal if both
corresponding components are equal. This could be written as follows:

XSLT implementation 

<xsl:function name="eg:duration-equal" as="xs:boolean"> 
  <xsl:param name="arg1" as="xs:duration"/> 
  <xsl:param name="arg2" as="xs:duration"/> 
  <xsl:sequence 
    select="get-months-from-duration($arg1) = 
               get-months-from-duration($arg2) and 
            get-seconds-from-duration($arg1) = 
               get-seconds-from-duration($arg2)" /> 
</xsl:function> 

XQuery implementation 

declare function eg:duration-equal($arg1 as xs:duration, $arg2 as
xs:duration) 
    as xs:boolean 
{ 
  get-months-from-duration($arg1) = 
      get-months-from-duration($arg2) and 
  get-seconds-from-duration($arg1) = 
      get-seconds-from-duration($arg2) 
} 

There is no reliable way of comparing whether one xs:duration value is
greater than another, because there is no definitive answer to the
question whether 30 days is greater than one month. One pragmatic
approach to sorting durations is to use as a sort key the expression:

get-months-from-duration(.) * 365.242199 div 12.0 
   + (get-seconds-from-duration(.) div 86400) 

Here 365.242199 is the average number of days in a year, and 86400 is
the number of seconds in a normal day. 

 

XPATH/XQUERY LANGUAGE BOOK 

Using the 22 August 2003 published Working Draft as a baseline: 

In 2.1.1.1 Predefined types, delete list items 3 and 4 which refer to
the xdt:dayTimeDuration and xdt:yearMonthDuration data types.

In 2.1.2 Dynamic context, change the implicit timezone so it is
expressed as an integer number of seconds (displacement from UTC).

In 3.1.1 Literals, change the example that uses an xdt:dayTimeDuration
(perhaps to use an xs:duration instead). 

In 3.4 Arithmetic Expressions, change the date subtraction example from:


*  Subtraction of two date values results in a value of type
xdt:dayTimeDuration: 
     $emp/hiredate - $emp/birthdate 

to: 

* Two date values may be subtracted to return a duration in seconds.
Dividing by 86400 gives the difference in days: 

     ($emp/hiredate - $emp/birthdate) div 86400 

In 3.10.4 Constructor functions, remove the references to the types
xdt:dayTimeDuration and xdt:yearMonthDuration, and the example that uses
these.

In Appendix B.2, the operator mapping table: 

(a) Delete the 37 rows that have xdt:dayTimeDuration or
xdt:yearMonthDuration in the Type(A) or Type(B) column. 

(b) Change the three rows for subtracting date-date, time-time, and
dateTime-dateTime so the return type is xs:double 

(c) Add the following 9 rows: 

A + B  xs:date      xs:double  op:add-seconds-to-date(A,B)  xs:date 
A + B  xs:time      xs:double  op:add-seconds-to-time(A,B)  xs:time 
A + B  xs:dateTime  xs:double  op:add-seconds-to-dateTime(A,B)
xs:dateTime 

A + B  xs:double  xs:date      op:add-seconds-to-date(B,A)  xs:date 
A + B  xs:double  xs:time      op:add-seconds-to-time(B,A)  xs:time 
A + B  xs:double  xs:dateTime  op:add-seconds-to-dateTime(A,B)
xs:dateTime 

A - B  xs:date  xs:date  op-subtract-dates(A,B)  xs:double 
A - B  xs:time  xs:time  op-subtract-times(A,B)  xs:double 
A - B  xs:dateTime  xs:dateTime  op-subtract-dateTimes(A,B)  xs:double 

 

FORMAL SEMANTICS 

3.1.1.1: remove references to xdt:dayTimeDuration and
xdt:yearMonthDuration types 

Appendix B.2: align the operator mapping table with the revised version
in the language document 

 

USE CASES 

Use Case 1: Timesheets 

Scenario: Staff complete timesheets giving for each day, the time they
start and finish work. The query calculates the total hours worked and
multiplies this by an hourly rate of pay to calculate the payment due.

Source document: 

<timesheets> 
  <employee nr="12345" rate="10.50"> 
    <attendance date="2003-01-15" start="T09:00:00" end="T17:00:00"/> 
    <attendance date="2003-01-16" start="T09:00:00" end="T18:00:00"/> 
    <attendance date="2003-01-17" start="T09:00:00" end="T17:00:00"/> 
    <attendance date="2003-01-18" start="T09:00:00" end="T16:00:00"/> 
    <attendance date="2003-01-19" start="T09:00:00" end="T16:00:00"/> 
  </employee> 
</timesheets> 

Solution: 

sum( for $a in $emp/attendance 
     return ($a/@end - $a/@start) div 3600) * $emp/@rate 

Note that this works even for shifts that cross midnight. 

Using the functions in the published WD, the subtraction of two times
yields a dayTimeDuration. It is not possible to multiply this directly
by an hourly rate to obtain the amount payable; instead it is necessary
to extract the individual components of the dayTimeDuration, use these
to compute the number of hours worked, and then do the multiplication.

Use Case 2: Average Speed 

Scenario: The source document contains the start times and end times for
each driver in each stage of a motor rally. The query calculates the
average speed.

Source document 

<timings> 
  <driver name="Mansell"> 
    <stage distance="520.5" start="2002-10-15T09:02:04.1" 
         finish="2002-10-15T17:12:16.2"/> 
    <stage distance="430.3" start="2002-11-15T08:32:05.7" 
         finish="2002-11-15T15:55:13.6"/> 
  </driver> 
</timings> 

Solution: 

avg(for $s in driver/stage return 
      @distance div (@finish - @start)) div 3600 

Using the functions in the published WD, the subtraction of two
dateTimes yields a dayTimeDuration. It is not possible to divide a
distance by a dayTimeDuration to obtain a speed; instead, it is
necessary to convert the duration to a number of seconds by extracting
all the components to compute the travel time in seconds.

These use cases demonstrate that although under this proposal the
specification has vastly fewer functions to manipulate durations,
practical calculations involving durations actually become significantly
easier.

  

 

Michael Kay 
Software AG 

Received on Tuesday, 27 January 2004 21:16:47 UTC