Tracking Issue: Duration::{as_nanos, as_micros, as_millis}

[fintelia]

Duration has historically lacked a way to get the actual number of nanoseconds it contained as a normal Rust type because u64 was of insufficient range, and f64 of insufficient precision. The u128 type solves both issues, so I propose adding an as_nanos function to expose the capability.

CC: #50167

[gbutler69]

I still don't understand why Duration is not allowed to be negative. It bugs me that the SystemTime difference returns a Result<Duration,Error> and returns and error if the time from is after the time to. To me, it should just return a negative Duration (Yes, the System Clock can go backwards). I find it odd that Duration does not support a negative amount.

[lnicola]

@gbutler69 I think it's about the way you think of Duration. If it's a span of time (like described in the documentation) or an interval, then it must be positive. If it's the distance between two time points, it's negative.

You're probably thinking of a distance instead of an interval. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's different from what the type is today, and it will never change due to compatibility concerns.

[gbutler69]

If it's a span of time (like described in the documentation) or an interval, then it must be positive. If it's the distance between two time points, it's negative.

Here is what I take issue with:

let t1 = std:time:SystemTime.now();
// ....long running computation happening...
// System Clock Time changed back 5 hours (because it was wrong to begin with) outside the program
// ....long running computation completed...
let t2 = std:time:SystemTime.now();

let clock_time_between_events = t2.duration_since( t1 ); // returns an error instead of negative duration, so I must do...
let ( clock_time_between_events, neg_duration ) = match ( clock_time_between_events ) {
    Some(duration) => ( duration, false )
    _ => ( t1.duration_since( t2 ).unwrap(), true )
}

And....DING! DING! DING! ....you know what, now that I've typed out that code, I can't think of any justifiable reason I would actually want that, so, once again, the thoughtfulness of Rust shows itself. You and the designers of Duration were correct. Negative Duration doesn't make sense (even though it feels like it should).

[lnicola]

You can use https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/time/struct.Instant.html if you want to measure a duration.

[gbutler69]

You can use https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/time/struct.Instant.html if you want to measure a duration.

Yes, I'm aware. I guess I think there should be another thing called ClockTimeDifference (that can be neg/pos) and there should be methods on SystemTime that don't return Result<Duration,Error>, but, instead return ClockTimeDifference. It could be as simple as:

struct ClockTimeDifference {
   duration : Duration,
   is_negative : bool
}

[lnicola]

It can, but the return type of duration_since will never change, so it's up to you (or a crate) to implement that.

[fintelia]

@gbutler69 @lnicola This is the tracking issue for a feature that adds several specific methods to Duration, not a place to debate general concerns about the Duration type. Your discussion is probably better suited for the internals.rust-lang.org site.

[NatTuck]

Why can't as_millis return an i64?

[sfackler]

@NatTuck large durations won't fit into that type.