Comparing two times with ToTime(Time[0]) while avoiding overruns

[Spiderbird]

Hi all,

I think I know the answer to this question in advance, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

I've been using ToTime to do a lot of time comparisons in my strategy. A well known use of it is by restricting the time a script executes a bit of code, based on the time of day. Here's what I use:

//  Run the script if the time is between 7:15 AM and 2:57 PM
			if (ToTime(Time[0]) >= 71500 && ToTime(Time[0]) <= 145700)

The problem I'm having now is comparing two time values at each bar update. The first time is a variable I set when any trade occurs. The second variable is the time of the bar update. I keep track of the difference between these two for reporting purposes and to measure how long I've been in a trade.

The snag occurs when I make a trade at 8:56 AM, and the bar update time value is 9:01. The math goes like this:

At the 8:58 AM mark:
85800 - 85600 = 200 (which is what I'm looking for)

At the 9:01 AM mark:
90100 - 85600 = 4500 (which is the overrun gap I run into using ToTime

------------------

My instinct is telling me that I have to convert all of my double variables holding times to DateTime variables, and using TimeSpan to figure out the difference.

Would this be correct, or is there a workaround within Time or ToTime that I can leverage? Mind you, the trade time is set with ToTime(Time[0]) at the time of the trade, and the same method is used to compare that time with OnBarUpdate in a COBC = false environment.

Thanks in advance for any answers or advice!

Yours,
Spider

[Spiderbird]

Got it!

Nevermind!

I figured it out on my own. The following code compares two time structures using TotalMinutes. Just had to scour StackOverflow for about 30 minutes and found a solution.

#region Variables
        
		DateTime FirstTime = new DateTime();
		DateTime SecondTime = new DateTime();
		double Diff;
		
        #endregion

 protected override void OnBarUpdate()
        {
			if (ToTime(Time[0]) == 83500)	{FirstTime = Time[0];}
			SecondTime = Time[0];
			Diff = (SecondTime - FirstTime).TotalMinutes;
			Print("Diff is " + Diff);	
			
        }

Hope that helps someone else in the same predicament!