Converting between boost units and durations

Question

I am working on a project involving many measurements and I would like to use boost units to ensure that units are converted correctly. I started by introducing some typedefs to simplify notation:

#include <boost/units/cmath.hpp>
#include <boost/units/io.hpp>
#include <boost/units/systems/si.hpp>
#include <boost/units/systems/si/io.hpp>

#include <boost/date_time/posix_time/posix_time.hpp>

namespace Time = boost::posix_time;

typedef Time::ptime DateTime;
typedef Time::time_duration Duration;

namespace Units
{
  using namespace boost::units;

  namespace SI
  {
    using namespace boost::units::si;
  }

  template <class U> using Quantity = quantity<U>;

  typedef Quantity<SI::length> Length;
  typedef Quantity<SI::velocity> Velocity;
  typedef Quantity<SI::time> Time;
}

I have written some code to compute distances and travel times using these units:

// a computation of distances which yields a length
Units::Length distance = origin.distance(destination);

Units::Velocity flight_speed(100 * Units::SI::meter / Units::SI::second);

Units::Time flight_time = distance / flight_speed;

DateTime departure_time = ...

DateTime arrival_time = departure_time + flight_time; // does not work..

This leads to my question: Is there some built-in way to convert between a Duration (aka boost::posix_time::time_duration) and time_duration Units::Quantity<SI::time> (aka boost::units::quantity<boost::units::si::time>)? It seems like this should be built-in, but I did not find anything in the documentation about it.

sehe · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-23T14:23:06.123

You have to do the work:

DateTime arrival_time = departure_time +
     boost::posix_time::seconds(flight_time / Units::SI::second);

Of course, you could hide the conversion in a helper of sorts:

static inline DateTime operator+(DateTime const &lhs, Units::Time const &rhs) {
    return lhs + Time::seconds(rhs / Units::SI::second);
}
static inline DateTime operator-(DateTime const &lhs, Units::Time const &rhs) {
    return lhs - Time::seconds(rhs / Units::SI::second);
}

Now you can write

auto arrival_time = departure_time + flight_time;

Live On Coliru

#include <boost/units/cmath.hpp>
#include <boost/units/io.hpp>
#include <boost/units/systems/si.hpp>
#include <boost/units/systems/si/io.hpp>

#include <boost/date_time/posix_time/posix_time.hpp>
namespace Time = boost::posix_time;

typedef Time::ptime         DateTime;
typedef Time::time_duration Duration;

namespace Units {
    using namespace boost::units;

    namespace SI {
        using namespace boost::units::si;
    }

    template <class U> using Quantity = quantity<U>;

    typedef Quantity<SI::length>   Length;
    typedef Quantity<SI::velocity> Velocity;
    typedef Quantity<SI::time>     Time;
} // namespace Units

#include <boost/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/point_xy.hpp>
struct MockLocation {
    boost::geometry::model::d2::point_xy<double> point;

    Units::Length distance(MockLocation const& other) const {
        return boost::geometry::distance(point, other.point) * 1000.0 * Units::SI::meter;
    }

    friend std::istream& operator>>(std::istream& is, MockLocation& ml) {
        double x,y;
        if (is >> x >> y)
            ml.point = {x,y};
        return is;
    }
};

#include <iostream>

static inline DateTime operator+(DateTime const &lhs, Units::Time const &rhs) {
    return lhs + Time::seconds(rhs / Units::SI::second);
}
static inline DateTime operator-(DateTime const &lhs, Units::Time const &rhs) {
    return lhs - Time::seconds(rhs / Units::SI::second);
}

int main() try {
    MockLocation origin, destination;
    std::cin.exceptions(std::ios::failbit);
    std::cout << "Enter origin      x,y (km): "; std::cin >> origin;
    std::cout << "Enter destination x,y (km): "; std::cin >> destination;

    // a computation of distances which yields a length
    Units::Length distance = origin.distance(destination);

    Units::Velocity flight_speed(100 * Units::SI::meter / Units::SI::second);

    Units::Time flight_time = distance / flight_speed;

    DateTime departure_time = Time::second_clock::local_time();

    using Period = Time::time_period;
    std::cout 
        << "\nDistance " << distance 
        << " at " << flight_speed 
        << " Schedule: " << Period(departure_time, departure_time+flight_time) 
        << "\n";

} catch(std::ios::failure const& e) {
    std::cerr << "Input error: " << e.what() << "\n";
}

Prints

Enter origin      x,y (km): Enter destination x,y (km): 
Distance 721110 m at 100 m s^-1 Schedule: [2018-Feb-23 14:22:55/2018-Feb-23 16:23:05.999999]

Converting between boost units and durations

1 Answers1