Age & Anniversary Calculations

[Peter M. Brigham, MD]

Here's what I use for #1:

function doAge tDate,asOf
   -- return the age given birthdate = <tDate>
   -- as of the date <asOf> (if empty, assumes today)
   convert tDate to dateItems
   if asOf = empty then
      put the date into asOf
   end if
   convert asOf to dateitems
   put item 1 of asOf - item 1 of tDate - 1 into tAge
   put item 1 of asOf into item 1 of tDate
   convert tDate to seconds
   convert asOf to seconds
   if tDate <= asOf then add 1 to tAge
   return tAge
end doAge

-- Peter

Peter M. Brigham
pmbrig at gmail.com
http://home.comcast.net/~pmbrig


On May 21, 2012, at 3:02 AM, Igor de Oliveira Couto wrote:

> Dear LC Folks,
> 
> What is the 'best' way to perform these 2 calculations with LiveCode?
> 
> 1) Calculate a person's age, given a birthdate:
> 
> /*
>   Calculates the number of birthdays from a given date, up to and including *today*.
>   @param pBirthDate the birthdate
>   @return a positive integer representing the number of birthdays from pBirthDate to today.
> */
> function currentAge pBirthDate
>   ...?
> end currentAge
> 
> 
> 2) Calculate whether an *anniversary* falls within a time frame - ie., within a week, within 2 weeks, within a month of today:
> 
> /*
>   Determines whether an anniversary date is close to a 'reference date'.
>   @param pAnniversaryDate the anniversary date
>   @param pReferenceDate the date that is supposed to be 'close' - or not - to the anniversary date
>   @pTimeFrame a time period, in seconds, that determines what 'close' is: it can be 1 day, 7 days, 1 month, etc.
>   @return a boolean: if the anniversary date is sufficiently 'close' (as specified by pTimeFrame) to the reference date,
>   then it returns TRUE, otherwise it returns FALSE.
> */
> function isAnniversaryClose pAnniversaryDate, pReferenceDate, pTimeFrame
>   ...?
> end isAnniversaryClose
> 
> I'm not being lazy, but the algorithms I came up with look so 'convoluted' that I *know* there must be an easier way. I know that usually in every language there is a 'standard' or 'best-practice' way to perform these standard date calculations, so rather than re-inventing the wheel, I thought I'd run it by you, Masters, and be humbled by your experience! :-)
> 
> Many thanks in advance,
> 
> --
> Igor Couto
> Sydney, Australia
> 
> 
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