in_int: Set operations on timeInterval objects

In timeDate: Rmetrics - Chronological and Calendar Objects

Set operations on timeInterval objects

Description

Union, intersection, complement and set difference of "timeInterval" objects. Also testing if an object is in a "timeInterval" and tiInf representing the infinite time interval.

Usage

## S3 method for class 'timeInterval'
!x
## S4 method for signature 'timeInterval,timeInterval'
e1 & e2
## S4 method for signature 'timeInterval,timeInterval'
e1 | e2
## S4 method for signature 'timeInterval,timeInterval'
e1 ^ e2

x %in_int% ti
## S4 method for signature 'timeInterval,timeInterval'
x %in_int% ti
## S4 method for signature 'timeDate,timeInterval'
x %in_int% ti

tiInf

Arguments

x	a "timeInterval" or "timeDate" object
e1, e2, ti	"timeInterval" objects

Details

Let ti1 and ti2 be objects from class "timeInterval".

ti1 & ti2 is the intersection of ti1 and ti2, ti1 | ti2 their union, ti1 the complement of ti1 (w.r.t. (-Inf, Inf)).

ti1 ^ ti2 is the complement of ti1 w.r.t. ti2, i.e., the set difference ti2/ti1 (all points in ti2 that are not in ti1). !ti1 is the same as ti1 ^ timeInterval(left = -Inf, right = Inf).

tiInf represents the time interval from -Inf to Inf.

A motivation for using the logical operators for set operations is that in mathematics the notation for them is similar and the properties of logical ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘negation’ are analogous to those of intersection, union and complement. Also A^c is one of the notations for complement, where ‘c’ stands for the universe (the whole set w.r.t. which the complement is taken). Here, it corresponds to timeInterval(left = -Inf, right = Inf). We extend this notation to allow taking a complement w.r.t. any "timeInterval" (i.e., a set difference).

x %in_int% ti checks if x is in the "timeInterval" ti.

If x is a "timeInterval" object, the result of x %in_int% ti is a single TRUE value if x is a sub-interval of ti; FALSE otherwise.

If x is a "timeDate" object, the result of x %in_int% ti is a logical vector indicating which times are in ti.

Value

for "&", "|", "!" and "^" methods - a "timeInterval" object,

Author(s)

Georgi N. Boshnakov

See Also

class "timeInterval",

timeInterval for creation of "timeInterval" objects and further examples,

in_int for set operations on "timeInterval" objects

Examples

## create a time interval by rounding to the enclosing hour
ti <- timeInterval(timeDate("2024-12-20 10:20:30"), unit = "hours")
ti

## a similar interval on the following day
tib <- timeInterval(timeDate("2024-12-21 10:20:30"), unit = "hours")
tib

ti2 <- ti | tib
ti2

ti & ti2
ti | ti2

!ti
!ti2

identical(!ti, ti ^ timeInterval(left = -Inf, right = Inf))
identical(!ti2, ti2 ^ timeInterval(left = -Inf, right = Inf))

## tiInf represents the time interval (-Inf, Inf)
identical(tiInf, timeInterval(left = -Inf, right = Inf))

ti ^ ti2 # ti2 \ ti
ti2 ^ ti # ti  \ ti2

timeDate("2024-12-20 10:20:30") %in_int% ti2  # TRUE
timeDate("2024-12-20 11:20:30") %in_int% ti2  # FALSE

timeDate(c("2024-12-20 10:20:30", "2024-12-20 11:20:30")) %in_int% ti2  

## ti's are closed on the left and open on the right, hence:
ti2@left %in_int% ti2    # [1] TRUE TRUE
ti2@right %in_int% ti2   # [1] FALSE FALSE

## a timeInterval is a scalar, so the following give a single TRUE/FALSE
## indicating whether or not the first interval is contained in the second
ti %in_int% ti2
ti2 %in_int% ti

timeDate documentation built on Oct. 21, 2025, 3 a.m.