Time Shield Library

Version: 1.0.1

Introduction

The Time Shield Library is a comprehensive C++ library designed for time manipulation, formatting, and conversion. It was built for practical and engineering tasks, especially in constrained or performance-critical environments.

Why Time Shield?

Unlike std::chrono or more academic libraries like HowardHinnant/date, Time Shield is designed to be simple, portable, and suitable for scenarios like logging, serialization, MQL5 usage, and date/time formatting.

• Uses simple types (int64_t, double) like ts_t, fts_t for timestamps — easy to serialize and store.
• Supports multiple time representations: Unix, floating-point seconds, ms/us precision, OLE Automation, Julian dates.
• Includes utilities for rounding, ISO8601 formatting/parsing, time parts, and boundary calculations.
• Header-only and cross-platform; most modules require only STL and <cstdint>.
• MQL5-compatible — does not use exceptions, STL containers, or dynamic memory.
• Modules requiring platform-specific APIs (like NtpClient) are isolated and optional.

Features

• Validation of dates and times
• Time and date formatting (standard and custom)
• Time zone conversion functions
• ISO8601 string parsing
• Utilities for time manipulation and conversion

Examples

Here is a simple demonstration:

#include <time_shield.hpp>
 
int main() {
    tsh::ts_t current_ts = tsh::timestamp();
    tsh::ts_t future_ts = tsh::end_of_year(current_ts);
    int days = tsh::get_days_difference(current_ts, future_ts);
    std::cout << "Days until end of year: " << days << std::endl;
 
    std::string formatted_time = tsh::to_iso8601_str(future_ts);
    tsh::ts_ms_t ts_ms = 0;
    if (!tsh::str_to_ts_ms(formatted_time, ts_ms)) {
        std::cout << "Error occurred while parsing ISO8601 string" << std::endl;
        return -1;
    }
 
    formatted_time = tsh::to_iso8601_utc_ms(ts_ms);
    std::cout << "Future time: " << formatted_time << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Additional example files are located in the examples/ folder:

• time_utils_example.cpp — get timestamps and parts
• time_formatting_example.cpp — to_string, ISO8601, MQL5
• time_parser_example.cpp — parse ISO8601
• time_conversions_example.cpp — convert between formats
• time_zone_conversions_example.cpp — CET/EET ↔ GMT
• ntp_client_example.cpp — NTP sync (Windows-only)

Installation

Time Shield is a header-only library. To use it in your C++ project:

• Add the include/time_shield_cpp folder to your project's include paths.
• Include the main header:

#include <time_shield.hpp>

No additional build steps or external dependencies are required.

For MQL5/MetaTrader:

• Run install_mql5.bat to copy the necessary .mqh files to your MQL5 include directory.
• Include the main file in your MQL5 script:

#include <TimeShield.mqh>

To build the C++ examples:

• Run build-examples.bat to compile example programs with MSVC or your preferred toolchain.

Repository

Time Shield Library GitHub repository

License

This library is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.