time_delta_to_approx_difftime: Convert 'time_delta' to an approximate difftime

In cmu-delphi/epiprocess: Tools for basic signal processing in epidemiology

Convert time_delta to an approximate difftime

Description

Usage

time_delta_to_approx_difftime(time_delta, time_type)

Details

To assist in comparing time_deltas to default difftime thresholds when we want to reduce friction.

It may be better to try to do something like make time_delta validation more accommodating (e.g., of difftimes with units of "days" when working on weekly scale), and remain rigid on yearmonths. Applying deltas and comparing time_values might also be an approach but seems more fraught as the least common denominator would be start/mid/end datetimes of time intervals, but those are also ambiguous (starting&representation wdays of weeks are unknown, timezone of dates are unknown).

Another alternative approach, below, converts difftimes to time_deltas instead. It requires knowledge of which way to round in order to get time_deltas representing an integer number of time steps, but avoids some potential inconsistencies of the time-delta-to-difftime approach when we think about applying it to, e.g., months / spans of months with varying numbers of days, and also makes it easier to avoid "magical defaults".

cmu-delphi/epiprocess documentation built on Feb. 22, 2025, 9:26 a.m.