>From: rakesh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Date: Wed, 24 Mar 93 09:49:12 -0500
>Subject: Re: A standard for time and labelling problems
The Maverick asked:
> Is there a standard definition for time that people have been using ?
> Currently I have defined time as the set Year,Day,Hour,Min,Sec,Milsec
We have used the Unix standard of time, i.e. seconds since Jan. 1, 1970.
This way we can store time as one long integer (4 bytes) per time value,
and are able to store time values in sec from year 1902 through year 2038.
Unix utilities can then be used to convert time into any form you want, e.g.
Date format: yyyy/mm/dd/hh:mm:ss
Julian date format: yy/dd/hh:mm:ss
String format: Ex: Fri May 15 16:12:19 1992
In contrast, by defining time as you have currently done, you will need
5 short integers (10 bytes) per time value.
Rakesh Mithal
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
Palisades, NY 10964
