> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.wem.io/platform/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.wem.io/platform/tutorials/building-widgets/wemscript/8-types/5-duration.md).

# 5. Duration

A `duration` type represents a measure of the interval between two events or points in time in a platform-independent format.

```
<?
    var @d: duration
    
    /* 2 minutes */
    @d := '2m'

    /* 4 hours and 6 seconds */
    @d := '4h6s'

    /* 14 days and 5.5 hours */
    @d := '14d5.5h'
?>
```

#### Print Output Overview

Let's assume we declared `var @d: duration`, which holds a duration of `'1d23h45m6s'`—representing 1 day, 23 hours, 45 minutes, and 6 seconds.

| Encoding       | Output      |
| -------------- | ----------- |
| `<?= @d ?>`    | 23:45:06    |
| `<?attr @d ?>` | 23:45:06    |
| `<?raw @d ?>`  | 23:45:06    |
| `<?js @d ?>`   | 50250000000 |

Be cautious! As you can see, when printing a variable of type `duration`, only the time part is displayed, not the date part. Although we specified 1 day in our variable `@d`, it is not printed.

There is no native "duration" type in JavaScript. However, when printing the variable as a JavaScript number, it is represented as a `Number` type in ticks, which is very precise. One tick represents 100 nanoseconds, and there are 10,000 ticks in a millisecond. Be careful when converting ticks to other units:

```
<? startupscript ?>
    const durationInTicks = <?js @DurationProperty ?>;
	const durationInMilliseconds = <?js @DurationProperty ?> / 10_000;
	const durationInSeconds = <?js @DurationProperty ?> / 10_000_000;
	const durationInMinutes = <?js @DurationProperty ?> / 600_000_000;
	const durationInHours = <?js @DurationProperty ?> / 36_000_000_000;
	const durationInDays = <?js @DurationProperty ?> / 864_000_000_000;
<? end ?>
```

Depending on the situation, you may want to use `Math.round()` on the numbers.

#### Text Field Postback Example

```
<? register input @DurationProperty unit = day ?>
<input type="text" name="<?attr OutputId(@DurationProperty) ?>" value="<?attr FormatDuration(@DurationProperty, "days") ?>">
```

In the example above, we `register input` for `@DurationProperty` with `unit = day`. This informs the WEM runtime that during a postback, a number representing the number of days will be sent. To convert our `duration` to days, we use `FormatDuration(@DurationProperty, "days")`, specifying `"days"` as the second argument to indicate the desired unit. If we want the input field to hold minutes instead of days, we change it to `register input @DurationProperty unit = minute` and use `FormatDuration(@DurationProperty, "minutes")`.

There are numerous ways to format a duration. The following outputs are generated when we have a `var @d: duration` with a value of `'12d34h56m1s'`:

| Call                              | Output                                    | Remarks           |
| --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "days")`      | 13                                        |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "hours")`     | 322                                       |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "minutes")`   | 19376                                     |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "seconds")`   | 1162561                                   |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "long")`      | 13 dagen, 10 uur, 56 minuten en 1 seconde | In Dutch language |
| `FormatDuration(@d, en_US)`       | 13:10:56:01                               |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, nl_NL)`       | 13:10:56:01                               |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "clock")`     | 10:56                                     |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "time")`      | 10:56                                     |                   |
| `FormatDuration(@d, "stopwatch")` | 10:56:01                                  |                   |

Be aware that in some situations, the duration may be truncated. For instance, when using `"clock"`, only the hours and minutes are shown. However, when formatting to `"seconds"`, the entire duration is represented in seconds.


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