Help with formatting difference between two dates

[Poldup]

I'm trying to make a small chrono script displaying in action bar but I can't format the text as I would like

It works by calculating the difference between "now" and a previous value of "now" stored in a variable, but the result of this difference seems to be stored in a text variable, therefore I can't format it as "MM:SS"

Here is the script :

function CountDisplay(p: player):       
    set {_minutes} to "00"   
    while {boatRacing::%{_p}'s uuid%} is true: #while the player is racing
        set {_time} to difference between {boatTimer::%{_p}'s uuid%} and now #{boatTimer::%{_p}'s uuid%} stores a previous value of now
        set {_timeDate} to {_time} parsed as date #I try to force parsing time as a date type but I receive an error telling me I can't parse text as date
        set {_seconds} to {_timedate} formatted as "ss" #This variable is never attributed, that's why I think I need a date or time type for "formatted as" to work
        send {_seconds} to {_p}
        set {_minutes} to {_timedate} formatted as "mm" #same here
        send action bar "%{_minutes}%:%{_seconds}%" to {_p} #the action bar says "<none>:<none>"
        wait 1 seconds

 

[CodingCat321]

Yeah, you’re right.
Since the variable isn’t a text string, it doesn’t get converted. You can easily fix it by using:

set {_placeholder} to "%{wanted variable for the string}%"

I’m not exactly sure why it behaves this way, but I made a little showcase script to help demonstrate it.

I hope this helps!

command /timer:
    trigger:
        set {timer} to 7200

every second:
    loop all players:
        set {_t} to "%{timer}% ticks" parsed as timespan
        remove 1 from {timer}
        set {_time} to "%{_t}%"
        replace all " seconds" or " second" with "s" in {_time}
        replace all " minutes" or " minute" with "m" in {_time}
        replace all " and" with " :" in {_time}
        wait 5 tick
        send action bar "%{_time}%" to loop-player

 

[Poldup]

Yeah, you’re right.
Since the variable isn’t a text string, it doesn’t get converted. You can easily fix it by using:

set {_placeholder} to "%{wanted variable for the string}%"

I’m not exactly sure why it behaves this way, but I made a little showcase script to help demonstrate it.

I hope this helps!

command /timer:
    trigger:
        set {timer} to 7200

every second:
    loop all players:
        set {_t} to "%{timer}% ticks" parsed as timespan
        remove 1 from {timer}
        set {_time} to "%{_t}%"
        replace all " seconds" or " second" with "s" in {_time}
        replace all " minutes" or " minute" with "m" in {_time}
        replace all " and" with " :" in {_time}
        wait 5 tick
        send action bar "%{_time}%" to loop-player

Thanks for your answer !

The thing is I don't want the variable to be a text, I don't get how the difference between two dates (now and earlier now) can be a text and not a timespan.

What I don't like in your solution is that it does smthing every second whereas in mine it is a function that can be called or not (actually I sometimes activate the display of the chronometer, sometimes not if there is too many players on the server so it doesn't lag). And when I don't display the chronometer, I don't have to actually count every second, only store the starting date (and time) of the timer and the ending one and then displaying the difference between the two.

I would like to do the same when displaying the chronometer, only displaying this difference every second, formatted as "MM:SS" which I can't since I can't get the difference other than a text looking like "1 minutes and 15.6 seconds"...

 

[CodingCat321]

Thanks for your answer !

The thing is I don't want the variable to be a text, I don't get how the difference between two dates (now and earlier now) can be a text and not a timespan.

What I don't like in your solution is that it does smthing every second whereas in mine it is a function that can be called or not (actually I sometimes activate the display of the chronometer, sometimes not if there is too many players on the server so it doesn't lag). And when I don't display the chronometer, I don't have to actually count every second, only store the starting date (and time) of the timer and the ending one and then displaying the difference between the two.

I would like to do the same when displaying the chronometer, only displaying this difference every second, formatted as "MM:SS" which I can't since I can't get the difference other than a text looking like "1 minutes and 15.6 seconds"...

Hey, you don't need to use "every second"—that was just an example. You can't edit numbers directly; you have to turn the number into a text variable with quotation marks like this: "". It's because of how script variables are stored and processed.

        set {_t} to "%{timer}% ticks" parsed as timespan
        set {_time} to "%{_t}%"
        replace all " seconds" or " second" with "s" in {_time}
        replace all " minutes" or " minute" with "m" in {_time}
        replace all " and" with " :" in {_time}

That would be the easiest way. I think dates are calculated differently and might need other parameters. The best way, I think, to show a clean timer is simply to edit the individual text elements.