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Date Formats

PrestoPlot allows the format displayed on the time axes and in markers to be changed even if the data source was in a different format.

Warning

PrestoPlot® does not automatically manage conversion between timescales (TDB, TAI, TT, etc.).

Date format list

AUTO

Use the format of the data file used for this date axis.

JJCNES_FRAC

Displays the date as dddd.ffff where the dddd is the number of days since '1950/01/01' and .ffff is the fraction of the day (Midday gives .5). e.g.: 

18971.5 (2001/12/10 12:00:00.000)
20000.1234 (2004/10/04 02:57:41.76)
Only the Precision of the fraction can be changed for this format.

JJCNES_SEC

Displays the date as dddd ssss.ffff where dddd is the number of days since '1950/01/01' and ssss.ffff is the number of seconds and fractions of second in the day. e.g.: 

18971 1234.5 (2001/12/10 00:20:34.5)
20000 40000.1234 (2004/10/04 11:06:40.1234)
Only the Precision of the seconds can be changed for this format.

JJ2000_MSDAY

Displays the date as dddd mmmmmmmm where dddd is the number of days since '2000/01/01' and mmmmmmmm is the number of milliseconds in the day. e.g.: 

344 43200000 (2001/12/10 12:00:00.000)
2000 12345678 (2005/06/23 03:25:45.678)
This format has no customisation options.

ESA_YEARDAY

Displays the date as yyyy-ddd hh.mm.ss.mmm where yyyy is the year, ddd is the number of the day in the year and hh.mm.ss.mmm is the 24H time with fractions of seconds. e.g.: 

2004-123 12.34.18.34 (2004/05/02 12:34:18.34)
Only the Precision of the seconds can be changed for this format.

ISO8601 (¹)

Displays the date in yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss.mmm format (Year/Month/Day), with an optional time component. e.g.: 

2003/05/12 00:02:20.330
2003/05/12
The Date format, Time format, and Precision can be changed for this format.

USA (¹)

Displays the date in mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss.mmm format (Month/Day/Year), with an optional time component. e.g.: 

05/12/2003 00:02:20.330
05/12/2003
The Date format, Time format, and Precision can be changed for this format.

EUR (¹)

Displays the date in dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss.mmm format (Day/Month/Year), with an optional time component. e.g.: 

12/05/2003 00:02:20.330
12/05/2003
The Date format, Time format, and Precision can be changed for this format.

GPS_SECONDS

Displays the date as wwww ssss.ffff where wwww is the number of weeks since '1980/01/06' and ssss.ffff is the number of seconds and fractions of a second in the week. e.g.: 

0 88.34 (1980/01/06 00:01:28.340)
1266 327495.0 (2004/04/14 18:58:15.0)
Only the Precision of the seconds can be changed for this format.

OFFSET

Displays the date as an offset in seconds and fractions of a second from a given Epoch date.

By default, the Epoch date is set to the start date of the axis.* The Epoch date, Engineering format, and Precision can be configured for this format, as well as duplicating the data using the SECONDS offset.

SECONDS

Displays the date as ssss.ssss in seconds and fractions of a second. e.g.: 

10.123456789
The Time format, Engineering format, and Precision can be configured.

UNIX

Displays the date as ssss.ssss in seconds and fractions of a second. e.g.: 

10.123456789
Only the Precision of the seconds can be changed for this format.

UNIXMS

Displays the date as ssss.ssss in milliseconds and fractions of a millisecond. e.g.: 

10.123456789
Only the Precision of the milliseconds can be changed for this format.

UNIXUS

Displays the date as ssss.ssss in microseconds and fractions of a microsecond. e.g.: 

10.123456789
Only the Precision of the microseconds can be changed for this format.

LINE_NUMBER

Displays the date as the line number of the data file. This format has no customisation options.

Tip

Additional date formats can be created within a plugin.

(¹) The calendar dates (ISO8601, EUR and USA) can contain either '/' or '-' as a date separator and a ' ' (space) or 'T' as a date/time separator when loading dates from source data files. Also, the time is optional and can be omitted. e.g. for EUR the date can be one of: 

12/05/2003T00:02:20.330
12-05-2003T00:02:20.330
12/05/2003 00:02:20.330
12-05-2003 00:02:20.330
12/05/2003
12-05-2003

Options

Most of these formats have a set of configuration options:

  • Engineering Format - Display the value using either 'Engineering' (1.2345e+010) or 'Floating' format (123.456).
  • Precision - Change the number of decimal digits displayed for fractions of second (0 to 12).
  • Epoch - Change the starting date for the offset, this is always entered using the ISO8601 format.

  • Date Format - Each format has a list of date types associated and NONE for no date display. AUTO will use the standard format (2004/04/17) in the correct order for the associated format. 

    17-April-2004 or 04/04/17.

    N.B.Selecting a date format with a 'T' as the last character will display the date on a single line.

    2003/05/28T00:02:20.330.

  • Time Format - Select the time from one of four formats or NONE for no time display. AUTO will use the standard time 19:45:32.123. e.g. 19:45 or 07:45 PM.

    N.B. Fractions of seconds will only be displayed if seconds are displayed and the precision is not 0.