[maybnxtseasn]

in the windows library there is a structure for storeing the variables of the date and time

typedef struct _SYSTEMTIME {
  WORD wYear;
  WORD wMonth;
  WORD wDayOfWeek;
  WORD wDay;
  WORD wHour;
  WORD wMinute;
  WORD wSecond;
  WORD wMilliseconds;
} SYSTEMTIME, *PSYSTEMTIME;

the function used to fill these values with their correct data is

GetSystemTime() and GetLocalTime()



well what i want to do is use the same values used in this but use it in my own structure

struct Time
{
	int hours;
	int minutes;
	int seconds;
};

how do i have my structure point the the values stored in wHour,wMinute,and wSecond??? im assumeing i will use the *PSYSTEMTIME pointer to this structure to do so....im just unsure how to use it..

[NickDMax]

Well really you probably just want to copy over the data. Here is an example (C++) where added a constructor to your structure that will initialize it with the system time if you have not specified a time:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>

struct Time
{
	int hours;
	int minutes;
	int seconds;
	
	//default constructor: gets system time from windows
	Time() {
		SYSTEMTIME st;
		GetSystemTime(&st);
		hours = st.wHour;
		minutes = st.wMinute;
		seconds = st.wSecond;
	}
	Time(int h, int m, int s) : hours(h), minutes(m), seconds(s) { }
};

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream &out, const Time &t) {
	out << t.hours << ":" << t.minutes << ":" << t.seconds;
	return out;
}

int main()
{
	Time t;
	std::cout << "And the time is: " << t << std::endl;
	return 0;
}

I also added an output operator for simplicity.

[maybnxtseasn]

NickDMax, on 18 Jan, 2010 - 06:26 AM, said:

Well really you probably just want to copy over the data. Here is an example (C++) where added a constructor to your structure that will initialize it with the system time if you have not specified a time:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>

struct Time
{
	int hours;
	int minutes;
	int seconds;
	
	//default constructor: gets system time from windows
	Time() {
		SYSTEMTIME st;
		GetSystemTime(&st);
		hours = st.wHour;
		minutes = st.wMinute;
		seconds = st.wSecond;
	}
	Time(int h, int m, int s) : hours(h), minutes(m), seconds(s) { }
};

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream &out, const Time &t) {
	out << t.hours << ":" << t.minutes << ":" << t.seconds;
	return out;
}

int main()
{
	Time t;
	std::cout << "And the time is: " << t << std::endl;
	return 0;
}

I also added an output operator for simplicity.

should i just declare it as a class lol?

[NickDMax]

Depends. struct is actually just an alias for class. basically when you write

struct myStruct { 
...
};

You are doing exactly the same as:

class myStruct { public:
...
};

So you can use struct/class it does not matter. Usually in such a case where all the members are public and I don't have a lot of member functions I generally go with struct. -- saving class for more advanced uses that better form a model of an object.

but it is up to you.

[NickDMax]

BTW... if you did not want to make your code platform dependent you can actually get the time directly from the C/C++ standard library:

//#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>

struct Time
{
	int hours;
	int minutes;
	int seconds;
	
	//default constructor: gets system time from windows
	Time() {
		//SYSTEMTIME st;
		//GetSystemTime(&st);
		//hours = st.wHour;
		//minutes = st.wMinute;
		//seconds = st.wSecond;
		std::time_t theTime;
		std::tm* pTime;
		std::time(&theTime);
		pTime = std::gmtime(&theTime);
		hours = pTime->tm_hour;
		minutes = pTime->tm_min;
		seconds = pTime->tm_sec;
	}
	Time(int h, int m, int s) : hours(h), minutes(m), seconds(s) { }
};

std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream &out, const Time &t) {
	out << t.hours << ":" << t.minutes << ":" << t.seconds;
	return out;
}

int main()
{
	Time t;
	std::cout << "And the time is: " << t << std::endl;
	return 0;
}

Although if you plan on using other windows specific features then it does not really make much difference.