Module java.xml
Package javax.xml.datatype

Class Duration

java.lang.Object
javax.xml.datatype.Duration
public abstract class Duration extends Object

Immutable representation of a time span as defined in the W3C XML Schema 1.0 specification.

A Duration object represents a period of Gregorian time, which consists of six fields (years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds) plus a sign (+/-) field.

The first five fields have non-negative (>=0) integers or null (which represents that the field is not set), and the seconds field has a non-negative decimal or null. A negative sign indicates a negative duration.

This class provides a number of methods that make it easy to use for the duration datatype of XML Schema 1.0 with the errata.

Order relationship

Duration objects only have partial order, where two values A and B maybe either:

  1. A<B (A is shorter than B)
  2. A>B (A is longer than B)
  3. A==B (A and B are of the same duration)
  4. A<>B (Comparison between A and B is indeterminate)

For example, 30 days cannot be meaningfully compared to one month. The compare(Duration duration) method implements this relationship.

See the isLongerThan(Duration) method for details about the order relationship among Duration objects.

Operations over Duration

This class provides a set of basic arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction and multiplication. Because durations don't have total order, an operation could fail for some combinations of operations. For example, you cannot subtract 15 days from 1 month. See the javadoc of those methods for detailed conditions where this could happen.

Also, division of a duration by a number is not provided because the Duration class can only deal with finite precision decimal numbers. For example, one cannot represent 1 sec divided by 3.

However, you could substitute a division by 3 with multiplying by numbers such as 0.3 or 0.333.

Range of allowed values

Because some operations of Duration rely on Calendar even though Duration can hold very large or very small values, some of the methods may not work correctly on such Durations. The impacted methods document their dependency on Calendar.

Since:
1.5
See Also:

  • Constructor Summary

    Constructors
    Constructor
    Description
    Duration()
    Default no-arg constructor.

  • Method Summary

    Modifier and Type
    Method
    Description
    abstract Duration
    add(Duration rhs)
    Computes a new duration whose value is this+rhs.
    abstract void
    addTo(Calendar calendar)
    Adds this duration to a Calendar object.
    void
    addTo(Date date)
    Adds this duration to a Date object.
    abstract int
    compare(Duration duration)
    Partial order relation comparison with this Duration instance.
    boolean
    equals(Object duration)
    Checks if this duration object has the same duration as another Duration object.
    int
    getDays()
    Obtains the value of the DAYS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present.
    abstract Number
    getField(DatatypeConstants.Field field)
    Gets the value of a field.
    int
    getHours()
    Obtains the value of the HOURS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present.
    int
    getMinutes()
    Obtains the value of the MINUTES field as an integer value, or 0 if not present.
    int
    getMonths()
    Obtains the value of the MONTHS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present.
    int
    getSeconds()
    Obtains the value of the SECONDS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present.
    abstract int
    getSign()
    Returns the sign of this duration in -1,0, or 1.
    long
    getTimeInMillis(Calendar startInstant)
    Returns the length of the duration in milli-seconds.
    long
    getTimeInMillis(Date startInstant)
    Returns the length of the duration in milli-seconds.
    QName
    getXMLSchemaType()
    Return the name of the XML Schema date/time type that this instance maps to.
    int
    getYears()
    Get the years value of this Duration as an int or 0 if not present.
    abstract int
    hashCode()
    Returns a hash code consistent with the definition of the equals method.
    boolean
    isLongerThan(Duration duration)
    Checks if this duration object is strictly longer than another Duration object.
    abstract boolean
    isSet(DatatypeConstants.Field field)
    Checks if a field is set.
    boolean
    isShorterThan(Duration duration)
    Checks if this duration object is strictly shorter than another Duration object.
    Duration
    multiply(int factor)
    Computes a new duration whose value is factor times longer than the value of this duration.
    abstract Duration
    multiply(BigDecimal factor)
    Computes a new duration whose value is factor times longer than the value of this duration.
    abstract Duration
    negate()
    Returns a new Duration object whose value is -this.
    abstract Duration
    normalizeWith(Calendar startTimeInstant)
    Converts the years and months fields into the days field by using a specific time instant as the reference point.
    Duration
    subtract(Duration rhs)
    Computes a new duration whose value is this-rhs.
    String
    toString()
    Returns a String representation of this Duration Object.

    Methods declared in class java.lang.Object

    clone, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

  • Constructor Details

    • Duration

      public Duration()
      Default no-arg constructor.

      Note: Always use the DatatypeFactory to construct an instance of Duration. The constructor on this class cannot be guaranteed to produce an object with a consistent state and may be removed in the future.

  • Method Details

    • getXMLSchemaType

      public QName getXMLSchemaType()
      Return the name of the XML Schema date/time type that this instance maps to. Type is computed based on fields that are set, i.e. isSet(DatatypeConstants.Field field) == true.
      Required fields for XML Schema 1.0 Date/Time Datatypes.
      (timezone is optional for all date/time datatypes)
      Datatype year month day hour minute second
      DatatypeConstants.DURATION X X X X X X
      DatatypeConstants.DURATION_DAYTIME X X X X
      DatatypeConstants.DURATION_YEARMONTH X X
      Returns:
      one of the following constants: DatatypeConstants.DURATION, DatatypeConstants.DURATION_DAYTIME or DatatypeConstants.DURATION_YEARMONTH.
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - If the combination of set fields does not match one of the XML Schema date/time datatypes.

    • getSign

      public abstract int getSign()
      Returns the sign of this duration in -1,0, or 1.
      Returns:
      -1 if this duration is negative, 0 if the duration is zero, and 1 if the duration is positive.

    • getYears

      public int getYears()
      Get the years value of this Duration as an int or 0 if not present.

      getYears() is a convenience method for getField(DatatypeConstants.YEARS).

      As the return value is an int, an incorrect value will be returned for Durations with years that go beyond the range of an int. Use getField(DatatypeConstants.YEARS) to avoid possible loss of precision.

      Returns:
      If the years field is present, return its value as an int, else return 0.

    • getMonths

      public int getMonths()
      Obtains the value of the MONTHS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present. This method works just like getYears() except that this method works on the MONTHS field.
      Returns:
      Months of this Duration.

    • getDays

      public int getDays()
      Obtains the value of the DAYS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present. This method works just like getYears() except that this method works on the DAYS field.
      Returns:
      Days of this Duration.

    • getHours

      public int getHours()
      Obtains the value of the HOURS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present. This method works just like getYears() except that this method works on the HOURS field.
      Returns:
      Hours of this Duration.

    • getMinutes

      public int getMinutes()
      Obtains the value of the MINUTES field as an integer value, or 0 if not present. This method works just like getYears() except that this method works on the MINUTES field.
      Returns:
      Minutes of this Duration.

    • getSeconds

      public int getSeconds()
      Obtains the value of the SECONDS field as an integer value, or 0 if not present. This method works just like getYears() except that this method works on the SECONDS field.
      Returns:
      seconds in the integer value. The fraction of seconds will be discarded (for example, if the actual value is 2.5, this method returns 2)

    • getTimeInMillis

      public long getTimeInMillis(Calendar startInstant)
      Returns the length of the duration in milli-seconds.

      If the seconds field carries more digits than milli-second order, those will be simply discarded (or in other words, rounded to zero.) For example, for any Calendar value x, 

       new Duration("PT10.00099S").getTimeInMills(x) == 10000
 new Duration("-PT10.00099S").getTimeInMills(x) == -10000

      Note that this method uses the addTo(Calendar) method, which may work incorrectly with Duration objects with very large values in its fields. See the addTo(Calendar) method for details.

      Parameters:
      startInstant - The length of a month/year varies. The startInstant is used to disambiguate this variance. Specifically, this method returns the difference between startInstant and startInstant+duration
      Returns:
      milliseconds between startInstant and startInstant plus this Duration
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - if startInstant parameter is null.

    • getTimeInMillis

      public long getTimeInMillis(Date startInstant)
      Returns the length of the duration in milli-seconds.

      If the seconds field carries more digits than milli-second order, those will be simply discarded (or in other words, rounded to zero.) For example, for any Date value x, 

       new Duration("PT10.00099S").getTimeInMills(x) == 10000
 new Duration("-PT10.00099S").getTimeInMills(x) == -10000

      Note that this method uses the addTo(Date) method, which may work incorrectly with Duration objects with very large values in its fields. See the addTo(Date) method for details.

      Parameters:
      startInstant - The length of a month/year varies. The startInstant is used to disambiguate this variance. Specifically, this method returns the difference between startInstant and startInstant+duration.
      Returns:
      milliseconds between startInstant and startInstant plus this Duration
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - If the startInstant parameter is null.
      See Also:

    • getField

      public abstract Number getField(DatatypeConstants.Field field)
      Gets the value of a field. Fields of a duration object may contain arbitrary large value. Therefore this method is designed to return a Number object. In case of YEARS, MONTHS, DAYS, HOURS, and MINUTES, the returned number will be a non-negative integer. In case of seconds, the returned number may be a non-negative decimal value.
      Parameters:
      field - one of the six Field constants (YEARS,MONTHS,DAYS,HOURS, MINUTES, or SECONDS.)
      Returns:
      If the specified field is present, this method returns a non-null non-negative Number object that represents its value. If it is not present, return null. For YEARS, MONTHS, DAYS, HOURS, and MINUTES, this method returns a BigInteger object. For SECONDS, this method returns a BigDecimal.
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - If the field is null.

    • isSet

      public abstract boolean isSet(DatatypeConstants.Field field)
      Checks if a field is set. A field of a duration object may or may not be present. This method can be used to test if a field is present.
      Parameters:
      field - one of the six Field constants (YEARS,MONTHS,DAYS,HOURS, MINUTES, or SECONDS.)
      Returns:
      true if the field is present. false if not.
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - If the field parameter is null.

    • add

      public abstract Duration add(Duration rhs)
      Computes a new duration whose value is this+rhs.

      For example, 

       "1 day" + "-3 days" = "-2 days"
 "1 year" + "1 day" = "1 year and 1 day"
 "-(1 hour,50 minutes)" + "-20 minutes" = "-(1 hours,70 minutes)"
 "15 hours" + "-3 days" = "-(2 days,9 hours)"
 "1 year" + "-1 day" = IllegalStateException

      Since there's no way to meaningfully subtract 1 day from 1 month, there are cases where the operation fails in IllegalStateException.

      Formally, the computation is defined as follows.

      Firstly, we can assume that two Durations to be added are both positive without losing generality (i.e., (-X)+Y=Y-X, X+(-Y)=X-Y, (-X)+(-Y)=-(X+Y))

      Addition of two positive Durations are simply defined as field by field addition where missing fields are treated as 0.

      A field of the resulting Duration will be unset if and only if respective fields of two input Durations are unset.

      Note that lhs.add(rhs) will be always successful if lhs.signum()*rhs.signum()!=-1 or both of them are normalized.

      Parameters:
      rhs - Duration to add to this Duration
      Returns:
      non-null valid Duration object.
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - If the rhs parameter is null.
      IllegalStateException - If two durations cannot be meaningfully added. For example, adding negative one day to one month causes this exception.
      See Also:

    • addTo

      public abstract void addTo(Calendar calendar)
      Adds this duration to a Calendar object.

      Calls Calendar.add(int,int) in the order of YEARS, MONTHS, DAYS, HOURS, MINUTES, SECONDS, and MILLISECONDS if those fields are present. Because the Calendar class uses int to hold values, there are cases where this method won't work correctly (for example if values of fields exceed the range of int.)

      Also, since this duration class is a Gregorian duration, this method will not work correctly if the given Calendar object is based on some other calendar systems.

      Any fractional parts of this Duration object beyond milliseconds will be simply ignored. For example, if this duration is "P1.23456S", then 1 is added to SECONDS, 234 is added to MILLISECONDS, and the rest will be unused.

      Note that because Calendar.add(int, int) is using int, Duration with values beyond the range of int in its fields will cause overflow/underflow to the given Calendar. XMLGregorianCalendar.add(Duration) provides the same basic operation as this method while avoiding the overflow/underflow issues.

      Parameters:
      calendar - A calendar object whose value will be modified.
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - if the calendar parameter is null.

    • addTo

      public void addTo(Date date)
      Adds this duration to a Date object.

      The given date is first converted into a GregorianCalendar, then the duration is added exactly like the addTo(Calendar) method.

      The updated time instant is then converted back into a Date object and used to update the given Date object.

      This somewhat redundant computation is necessary to unambiguously determine the duration of months and years.

      Parameters:
      date - A date object whose value will be modified.
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - if the date parameter is null.

    • subtract

      public Duration subtract(Duration rhs)
      Computes a new duration whose value is this-rhs.

      For example: 

       "1 day" - "-3 days" = "4 days"
 "1 year" - "1 day" = IllegalStateException
 "-(1 hour,50 minutes)" - "-20 minutes" = "-(1hours,30 minutes)"
 "15 hours" - "-3 days" = "3 days and 15 hours"
 "1 year" - "-1 day" = "1 year and 1 day"

      Since there's no way to meaningfully subtract 1 day from 1 month, there are cases where the operation fails in IllegalStateException.

      Formally the computation is defined as follows. First, we can assume that two Durations are both positive without losing generality. (i.e., (-X)-Y=-(X+Y), X-(-Y)=X+Y, (-X)-(-Y)=-(X-Y))

      Then two durations are subtracted field by field. If the sign of any non-zero field F is different from the sign of the most significant field, 1 (if F is negative) or -1 (otherwise) will be borrowed from the next bigger unit of F.

      This process is repeated until all the non-zero fields have the same sign.

      If a borrow occurs in the days field (in other words, if the computation needs to borrow 1 or -1 month to compensate days), then the computation fails by throwing an IllegalStateException.

      Parameters:
      rhs - Duration to subtract from this Duration.
      Returns:
      New Duration created from subtracting rhs from this Duration.
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - If two durations cannot be meaningfully subtracted. For example, subtracting one day from one month causes this exception.
      NullPointerException - If the rhs parameter is null.
      See Also:

    • multiply

      public Duration multiply(int factor)
      Computes a new duration whose value is factor times longer than the value of this duration.

      This method is provided for the convenience. It is functionally equivalent to the following code: 

       multiply(new BigDecimal(String.valueOf(factor)))
      Parameters:
      factor - Factor times longer of new Duration to create.
      Returns:
      New Duration that is factortimes longer than this Duration.
      See Also:

    • multiply

      public abstract Duration multiply(BigDecimal factor)
      Computes a new duration whose value is factor times longer than the value of this duration.

      For example, 

       "P1M" (1 month) * "12" = "P12M" (12 months)
 "PT1M" (1 min) * "0.3" = "PT18S" (18 seconds)
 "P1M" (1 month) * "1.5" = IllegalStateException

      Since the Duration class is immutable, this method doesn't change the value of this object. It simply computes a new Duration object and returns it.

      The operation will be performed field by field with the precision of BigDecimal. Since all the fields except seconds are restricted to hold integers, any fraction produced by the computation will be carried down toward the next lower unit. For example, if you multiply "P1D" (1 day) with "0.5", then it will be 0.5 day, which will be carried down to "PT12H" (12 hours). When fractions of month cannot be meaningfully carried down to days, or year to months, this will cause an IllegalStateException to be thrown. For example if you multiple one month by 0.5.

      To avoid IllegalStateException, use the normalizeWith(Calendar) method to remove the years and months fields.

      Parameters:
      factor - to multiply by
      Returns:
      returns a non-null valid Duration object
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - if operation produces fraction in the months field.
      NullPointerException - if the factor parameter is null.

    • negate

      public abstract Duration negate()
      Returns a new Duration object whose value is -this.

      Since the Duration class is immutable, this method doesn't change the value of this object. It simply computes a new Duration object and returns it.

      Returns:
      always return a non-null valid Duration object.

    • normalizeWith

      public abstract Duration normalizeWith(Calendar startTimeInstant)
      Converts the years and months fields into the days field by using a specific time instant as the reference point.

      For example, duration of one month normalizes to 31 days given the start time instance "July 8th 2003, 17:40:32".

      Formally, the computation is done as follows:

      1. the given Calendar object is cloned
      2. the years, months and days fields will be added to the Calendar object by using the Calendar.add(int,int) method
      3. the difference between the two Calendars in computed in milliseconds and converted to days, if a remainder occurs due to Daylight Savings Time, it is discarded
      4. the computed days, along with the hours, minutes and seconds fields of this duration object is used to construct a new Duration object.

      Note that since the Calendar class uses int to hold the value of year and month, this method may produce an unexpected result if this duration object holds a very large value in the years or months fields.

      Parameters:
      startTimeInstant - Calendar reference point.
      Returns:
      Duration of years and months of this Duration as days.
      Throws:
      NullPointerException - If the startTimeInstant parameter is null.

    • compare

      public abstract int compare(Duration duration)
      Partial order relation comparison with this Duration instance.

      Comparison result must be in accordance with W3C XML Schema 1.0 Part 2, Section 3.2.7.6.2, Order relation on duration.

      Return:

      Parameters:
      duration - to compare
      Returns:
      the relationship between this Duration and duration parameter as DatatypeConstants.LESSER, DatatypeConstants.EQUAL, DatatypeConstants.GREATER or DatatypeConstants.INDETERMINATE.
      Throws:
      UnsupportedOperationException - If the underlying implementation cannot reasonably process the request, e.g. W3C XML Schema allows for arbitrarily large/small/precise values, the request may be beyond the implementations capability.
      NullPointerException - if duration is null.
      See Also:

    • isLongerThan

      public boolean isLongerThan(Duration duration)
      Checks if this duration object is strictly longer than another Duration object.

      Duration X is "longer" than Y if and only if X > Y as defined in the section 3.2.6.2 of the XML Schema 1.0 specification.

      For example, "P1D" (one day) > "PT12H" (12 hours) and "P2Y" (two years) > "P23M" (23 months).

      Parameters:
      duration - Duration to test this Duration against.
      Returns:
      true if the duration represented by this object is longer than the given duration. false otherwise.
      Throws:
      UnsupportedOperationException - If the underlying implementation cannot reasonably process the request, e.g. W3C XML Schema allows for arbitrarily large/small/precise values, the request may be beyond the implementations capability.
      NullPointerException - If duration is null.
      See Also:

    • isShorterThan

      public boolean isShorterThan(Duration duration)
      Checks if this duration object is strictly shorter than another Duration object.
      Parameters:
      duration - Duration to test this Duration against.
      Returns:
      true if duration parameter is shorter than this Duration, else false.
      Throws:
      UnsupportedOperationException - If the underlying implementation cannot reasonably process the request, e.g. W3C XML Schema allows for arbitrarily large/small/precise values, the request may be beyond the implementations capability.
      NullPointerException - if duration is null.
      See Also:

    • equals

      public boolean equals(Object duration)
      Checks if this duration object has the same duration as another Duration object.

      For example, "P1D" (1 day) is equal to "PT24H" (24 hours).

      Duration X is equal to Y if and only if time instant t+X and t+Y are the same for all the test time instants specified in the section 3.2.6.2 of the XML Schema 1.0 specification.

      Note that there are cases where two Durations are "incomparable" to each other, like one month and 30 days. For example, 

       !new Duration("P1M").isShorterThan(new Duration("P30D"))
 !new Duration("P1M").isLongerThan(new Duration("P30D"))
 !new Duration("P1M").equals(new Duration("P30D"))
      Overrides:
      equals in class Object
      Parameters:
      duration - The object to compare this Duration against.
      Returns:
      true if this duration is the same length as duration. false if duration is null, is not a Duration object, or its length is different from this duration.
      Throws:
      UnsupportedOperationException - If the underlying implementation cannot reasonably process the request, e.g. W3C XML Schema allows for arbitrarily large/small/precise values, the request may be beyond the implementations capability.
      See Also:

    • hashCode

      public abstract int hashCode()
      Returns a hash code consistent with the definition of the equals method.
      Overrides:
      hashCode in class Object
      Returns:
      a hash code value for this object.
      See Also:

    • toString

      public String toString()
      Returns a String representation of this Duration Object.

      The result is formatted according to the XML Schema 1.0 spec and can be always parsed back later into the equivalent Duration Object by DatatypeFactory.newDuration(String lexicalRepresentation).

      Formally, the following holds for any Duration Object x: 

       new Duration(x.toString()).equals(x)
      Overrides:
      toString in class Object
      Returns:
      A non-null valid String representation of this Duration.