Work with durations

A duration type represents a length of time with nanosecond precision.

Type name: duration

• Duration syntax
• Convert data types to durations
• Operate on durations

Duration syntax

Duration literals contain integers and unit specifiers. Flux supports the following unit specifiers:

• ns: nanosecond
• us: microsecond
• ms: millisecond
• s: second
• m: minute
• h: hour
• d: day
• w: week
• mo: calendar month
• y: calendar year

1ns // 1 nanosecond
1us // 1 microsecond
1ms // 1 millisecond
1s  // 1 second
1m  // 1 minute
1h  // 1 hour
1d  // 1 day
1w  // 1 week
1mo // 1 calendar month
1y  // 1 calendar year

3d12h4m25s // 3 days, 12 hours, 4 minutes, and 25 seconds

01m // parsed as 0 (integer literal) and 1m (duration literal)
02h05m // parsed as 0 (integer literal), 2h (duration literal), 0 (integer literal), and 5m (duration literal)

Convert data types to durations

Use the duration() function to convert the following basic types to durations:

• string: parsed as a duration string and converted to a duration.
• int: parsed as nanoseconds and converted to a duration.
• uint: parsed as nanoseconds and converted to a duration.

duration(v: "1h30m")
// Returns 1h30m

duration(v: 1000000)
// Returns 1ms

duration(v: uint(v: 3000000000))
// Returns 3s

Operate on durations

• Perform arithmetic operations on durations
• Add a duration to a time value
• Subtract a duration from a time value

Perform arithmetic operations on durations

To perform operations like adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing duration values:

1. Use int() or uint() to convert duration values to numeric values.
2. Use arithmetic operators to operate on numeric values.
3. Use duration() to convert the calculated numeric value into a duration.

duration(v: int(v: 6h4m) + int(v: 22h32s))
// Returns 1d4h4m32s

duration(v: int(v: 22h32s) - int(v: 6h4m))
// Returns 15h56m32s

duration(v: int(v: 32m10s) * 10)
// Returns 5h21m40s

duration(v: int(v: 24h) / 2)
// Returns 12h

Add a duration to a time value

1. Import the date package.
2. Use date.add() to add a duration to a time value.

import "date"

date.add(d: 1w, to: 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z)
// Returns 2021-01-08T00:00:00.000000000Z

Subtract a duration from a time value

1. Import the date package.
2. Use date.sub() to subtract a duration from a time value.

import "date"

date.sub(d: 1w, from: 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z)
// Returns 2020-12-25T00:00:00.000000000Z