function Abs(e: Extended): Extended

  returns the positive value of the argument

function ArcTan(X: Extended): Extended

Calculates the arctangent of a given number.

function Cos(e: Extended): Extended

  Calculates the cosine of an angle.

function Exp(X: Extended): Extended

  Returns the exponential of X.

function Frac(X: Extended): Extended

  Returns the fractional part of a real number.

function Int(e: Extended): Integer

  Returns the integer part of a real number.

function Ln(X: Extended): Extended

  Returns the natural log of a real expression.

function Pi: Extended

  Returns 3.1415926535897932385.

function Round(e: Extended): Integer

Round returns a value that is the value of X rounded to the nearest whole number. If X is exactly halfway between two whole numbers, the result is always the even number.

function Sin(e: Extended): Extended

  Returns the sine of the angle in radians.

function Sqrt(e: Extended): Extended

  Returns the square root of X.

function Tan(X: Extended): Extended

  Returns the tangent of X.

function Trunc(e: Extended): Integer

  Truncates a real number to an integer.

function Chr(i: Integer): Char

  Returns the character for a specified ASCII value.

function CompareText(s, s1: String): Integer

  Compares two strings by ordinal value without case sensitivity.

Thus for example, CompareText will indicate that the string

ABC is less than aaa because A is less than a in ascii order.  

function Copy(s: String; from, count: Integer): String

Returns a substring of a string, starting at FROM for COUNT characters

function Length(s: String): Integer

Returns the number of characters in a string or elements in an array.

function Lowercase(s: String): String

  Converts an ASCII string to lowercase.

function NameCase(s: String): String

  Converts the first character of words to uppercase

function Ord(ch: Char): Integer

Returns the ordinal value of an ordinal-type expression. E.g Ord('A') would return 65

function Pos(substr, s: String): Integer

Returns the index value of the first character in a specified substring that occurs in a given string. If Substr is not found, Pos returns zero.

function Trim(s: String): String

Trims leading and trailing spaces and control characters from a string.

function Uppercase(s: String): String

  Converts an ASCII string to uppercase.

procedure Delete(var s: String; from, count: Integer): String

Removes a substring from a s string.  Delete removes a substring of Count characters from string S starting with S[Index]. S is a string-type variable. Index and Count are integer-type expressions.

procedure Insert(s: String; var s2: String; pos: Integer): String

Inserts a substring into a string beginning at a specified point.

procedure SetLength(var S: String; L: Integer)

  Sets the length of a string or dynamic-array variable.

function CreateOleObject(ClassName: String): Variant

Instantiates a single instance of an Automation object. ClassName specifies the string representation of the Class ID (CLSID).

function Random: Extended

Random returns a random number within the range 0 <= X < Range. If Range is not specified, the result is a real-type random number within the range 0 <= X < 1.

NB: To initialize the random number generator, add a single call Randomize before making any calls to Random.

function ValidDate(cDate: String): Boolean

Returns True if the string argument has a valid date(time) format

function ValidFloat(cFlt: String): Boolean

Returns True if the string argument has a valid real format

function ValidInt(cInt: String): Boolean

  Returns True if the string argument has a valid integer format

function VarArrayCreate(Bounds: Array; Typ: Integer): Variant

All kind of arrays are supported: static (one- and multi-dimesional), dynamic, variant arrays. However, since the scripting control uses variant types 'behind the scene' there is a specific syntax for creating arrays that requires a call to the VarArrayCreate function. Here is an example of script that uses all array types:  

var  

 ar1: array[0..2] of Integer;  

 ar2: array of Integer;  

 ar3: Variant;  

SetLength(ar2, 3);  

ar3 := VarArrayCreate([0, 2], varInteger);  

ar1[0] := 1;  

ar2[0] := 1;  

ar3[0] := 1;

procedure Dec(var i: Integer; decr: Integer = 1)

  Decrements a variable by 1 or decr.  

procedure Inc(var i: Integer; incr: Integer = 1)

  Increments a variable by 1 or decr.  

procedure RaiseException(Param: String)

Will generate an error message stop the continuation of the code flow

procedure Randomize

  Initializes the random number generator with a random value.

  Typically, Randomize is called only once, before all calls to Random.

procedure ShowMessage(Msg: Variant)

Call ShowMessage to display a simple message box with an OK button.

function Date: TdateTime

  Returns the current date

function DateOf(const AValue: TDateTime): TDateTime

  Returns the date part of a datetime

function DayOf(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the day in the month of the date argument

function DayOfTheMonth(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the day in the month of the date argument

function DayOfTheWeek(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

Returns the day in the week of the date argument. Monday is Day1

function DayOfTheYear(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the day in the year of the date argument

function DaysInAMonth(const AYear, AMonth: Word): Word

  Returns the number of days in the month of a supplied year

function DaysInAYear(const AYear: Word): Word

  Returns the number of days in a supplied year

function DaysInMonth(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

Returns the number of days in the month of a supplied date

function DaysInYear(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the number of days in the year of a supplied date

function EncodeDate(Year, Month, Day: Word): TdateTime

  Converts arguments into a Date value

function EncodeTime(Hour, Min, Sec, MSec: Word): TdateTime

Converts arguments into a Time value

function EndOfAMonth(const AYear, AMonth: Word): TDateTime

  Returns the end of month date for year and month arguments

function EndOfAWeek(const AYear, AWeekOfYear: Word;  const ADayOfWeek: Word = 7): TDateTime

  Returns the end of week date for year and week arguments  

function EndOfAYear(const AYear: Word): TDateTime

  Returns the end of year date for year argument  

function EndOfTheDay(const AValue: TDateTime): TDateTime

  Returns datetime at the end of the day of the date argument

e.g. 01/01/2005 15:36 becomes 01/01/2005 23:59

function EndOfTheMonth(const AValue: TDateTime): TDateTime

Returns the end of the month date for the month in the date argument

function EndOfTheWeek(const AValue: TDateTime): TDateTime

Returns the end of the week date for the week in the date  argument

function EndOfTheYear(const AValue: TDateTime): TDateTime

Returns the end of the year date for the month in the date argument

function HourOf(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the hour value for the datetime argument

function HourOfTheDay(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the hour in the day for the datetime argument

function HourOfTheMonth(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the hour in the month for the datetime argument

function HourOfTheWeek(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the hour in the week for the datetime argument

function HourSpan(const ANow, AThen: TDateTime): Double

  Returns the number of hours between two dates

function IsInLeapYear(const AValue: TDateTime): Boolean

  Returns True if argument is in a leap year

function IsLeapYear(Year: Word): Boolean

  Returns True if argument is a leap year

function IsPM(const AValue: TDateTime): Boolean

  Returns True if argument is in the afternoon

function IsSameDay(const AValue, ABasis: TDateTime): Boolean

  Returns True if two dates are on the same day

function IsToday(const AValue: TDateTime): Boolean

  Returns True if argument is today

function IsValidDate(const AYear, AMonth, ADay: Word): Boolean

  Returns True if arguments make up a valid date

function IsValidDateDay(const AYear, ADayOfYear: Word): Boolean

  Returns True if ADayOfYear of Ayear falls on a valid date

function IsValidDateMonthWeek(const AYear, AMonth, AWeekOfMonth,   ADayOfWeek: Word): Boolean

Returns True if AWeekOfMonth and ADayOfWeek falls on a valid date for the aYear and aMonth arguments.

function IsValidDateTime(const AYear, AMonth, ADay, AHour, AMinute, ASecond,   AMilliSecond: Word): Boolean

  Returns True if arguments make up a valid datetime

function IsValidDateWeek(const AYear, AWeekOfYear,   ADayOfWeek: Word): Boolean

  Returns True if arguments make up a valid date

function IsValidTime(const AHour, AMinute, ASecond, AMilliSecond: Word): Boolean

  Returns True if arguments make up a valid date

function MinuteOf(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the minute only of a datetime argument

function MinuteOfTheDay(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the minute part of a datetime argument

function MinuteOfTheHour(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

Returns the number of minutes into a the day of the dateime argument

function MonthOf(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the month part of a datetime argument

function MonthOfTheYear(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

Returns the number of months into the year of the datetime argument

function Now: TdateTime

  Returns the current date time

function StartOfAMonth(const AYear, AMonth: Word): TdateTime

Returns the date for the first day in the month for the aMonth and aYear arguments

function StartOfAWeek(const AYear, AWeekOfYear: Word;  const ADayOfWeek: Word = 1): TdateTime

Returns the date of the start of the week in the supplied year and week arguments.

function StartOfAYear(const AYear: Word): TdateTime

  Returns January 1st for the year in the Date Time argument

function StartOfTheDay(const AValue: TDateTime): TdateTime

Returns the date part only of the argument, thus giving the start of the day

function StartOfTheMonth(const AValue: TDateTime): TdateTime

Returns the date of the first day of the month in the Date Time argument

function StartOfTheWeek(const AValue: TDateTime): TdateTime

Returns the date of the Monday of the week in the Date Time argument

function StartOfTheYear(const AValue: TDateTime): TdateTime

  Returns January 1st for the year in the Date Time argument

function Time: TdateTime

  Returns the current time

function TimeOf(const AValue: TDateTime): TdateTime

  Retuns the time fraction of datetime argument,

N.B. 0.5 = 12:00hr

function Today: TdateTime

  Returns Today's date

function Tomorrow: TdateTime

  Returns Tomorrow's date

function WeekOf(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

Returns the number of weeks into a the year of the date time argument    

function WeekOfTheMonth(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

Returns the number of weeks into the month of the date time argument    

function WeekOfTheYear(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

Returns the number of weeks into the year of the date time argument    

function WeeksInAYear(const AYear: Word): Word

  Returns the number of weeks in the year of the year argument

function WeeksInYear(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the number of weeks in the year of the date argument

function YearOf(const AValue: TDateTime): Word

  Returns the year part of the date argument

function Yesterday: TdateTime

  Returns yesterday's date

procedure DecodeDate(Date: TDateTime; var Year, Month, Day: Word)

  decomposes a date into constituent Year, Month, Day values;

procedure DecodeTime(Time: TDateTime; var Hour, Min, Sec, MSec: Word)

  decomposes a date into constituent Hour, Min, Sec, MSec values;

Most of the functions available perform standard tasks that many programmers would expect a programming environment to offer; however, the Navigator node contains a number of specialised functions that have been crafted to assist with the sort of calculations that you might need when working out crew costs. You will see some of them used in the code samples supplied, but a brief explanation of them follows below:

GetSubRangeHours(mainRangeStart, mainRangeFinish, subRangeStart, subRangeFinish: real; DoublePeriod: boolean = False): real

This is the real engine of time of day hourly pricing. It returns the overlap in hours of two time ranges, regardless of midnight spans and other complexities. The optional DoublePeriod parameter tells the function to get the second overlap if there is one as well, e.g. overtime rate is from 21:00 - 07:00 and someone works from 06:00 until 22:00. If DoublePeriod = false then overlap for overtime is 1 hour, if true its 2 hours.

DateTimeInHoursRange(aDateTime, RangeStartTime, RangeEndTime: real; IncludeStart, IncludeEnd: boolean): boolean

Tests if a time falls in a time range. IncludeStart, IncludeEnd specify whether you consider the time in the range if it equals the extreme of the range. For example, if you are interested in if the START of someone's shift falls in the range you might want to set IncludeStart = True, IncludeEnd = false.

GetHolidaysFromRange(Start, Finish: TdateTime; HolidayArray: variant; IngoreWeekend: boolean = false): integer

This allows you to get the number of user-defined holiday days from a period. The list of holidays is passed in the HolidayArray parameter and this must be constructed in a special way. See the sample "Daily - inc. holidays" script for an example of its implementation. The IgnoreWeekend parameter stops the total returned adding Saturdays and Sundays if the holidays fall on any of these days.

GetHolidaysFromRangeEx(Start, Finish: TdateTime; HolidayArray: variant; IngoreDays: variant): integer

This works just like GetHolidaysFromRange() except that you can pass a variant array of integers in your IngoreDays parameter where Monday = 1, Sunday = 7.

GetDayCountFromRange(Start, Finish: TdateTime;Day:integer): integer

This retrieves the number of Monday, Tuesdays, etc from a date range, where Monday = 1, Sunday = 7

GetDaysCountFromRange(Start, Finish: TdateTime;Days:variant): integer

This works just like GetDayCountFromRange() except that you can pass a variant array of integers in your Days parameter where Monday = 1, Sunday = 7, thus enabling you to get then total number of, say, Fridays and Saturdays in a period.

GetEasterDate(year, method: word):TDateTime

This retrieves Easter Sunday date from a year (e.g. 2005). The method parameter can be either 1,2,or 3 where

·   1 uses the Julian calendar

·   2 uses the Gregorian calendar (orthodox method)

·   3 users the Gregorian calendar (western method)

The third method would normally be passed.

DateToHolidaysString(aDate:TDateTime):string

This function will return a string from a date that is formatted correctly to be added to a HolidayArray. See the sample "Daily - inc. holidays" script for an example of its implementation.  

GetWeekendDaysFromRange(Start, Finish: TdateTime): integer

Returns the number of Weekend days in a time period

IsAHoliday(aDate:TDateTime;HolidayArray:variant):boolean

Returns true if a passed date is in a user defined HolidayArray (see above).

function DateTimeToStr(e: Extended): String

  Converts a DateTime value to a string.

function DateToStr(e: Extended): String

  Converts a Date value to a string.

function FloatToStr(e: Extended): String

  Converts a real number to a string.

function IntToStr(i: Integer): String

  Converts an integer to a string.

function StrToDate(s: String): Extended

  Converts a string to a DateTime value.

function StrToDateTime(s: String): Extended

  Converts a string to a DateTime value.

function StrToFloat(s: String): Extended

  Converts a string to a real number.

function StrToInt(s: String): Integer

  Converts a string to an integer value.

function StrToTime(s: String): Extended

  Converts a string to a DateTime value.

function TimeToStr(e: Extended): String

  Converts a Time to a String value.

function VarToStr(v: Variant): String

  Converts a Variant to a string.

function Format(Fmt: String; Args: array): String

Returns a formatted string assembled from a format string and an array of arguments. e.g.

Format('There are now %d records in the table', [DataSet.RecordCount]);

The following table summarizes the possible values for the array of arguments:

d   Decimal. The argument must be an integer value. The value is converted to a string of decimal digits. If the format string contains a precision specifier, it indicates that the resulting string must contain at least the specified number of digits; if the value has less digits, the resulting string is left-padded with zeros.

u   Unsigned decimal. Similar to 'd' but no sign is output.

e   Scientific. The argument must be a floating-point value. The value is converted to a string of the form "-d.ddd...E+ddd". The resulting string starts with a minus sign if the number is negative. One digit always precedes the decimal point.The total number of digits in the resulting string (including the one before the decimal point) is given by the precision specifier in the format string—a default precision of 15 is assumed if no precision specifier is present. The "E" exponent character in the resulting string is always followed by a plus or minus sign and at least three digits.

f   Fixed. The argument must be a floating-point value. The value is converted to a string of the form "-ddd.ddd...". The resulting string starts with a minus sign if the number is negative.The number of digits after the decimal point is given by the precision specifier in the format string—a default of 2 decimal digits is assumed if no precision specifier is present.

g   General. The argument must be a floating-point value. The value is converted to the shortest possible decimal string using fixed or scientific format. The number of significant digits in the resulting string is given by the precision specifier in the format string—a default precision of 15 is assumed if no precision specifier is present.Trailing zeros are removed from the resulting string, and a decimal point appears only if necessary. The resulting string uses fixed point format if the number of digits to the left of the decimal point in the value is less than or equal to the specified precision, and if the value is greater than or equal to 0.00001. Otherwise the resulting string uses scientific format.

n   Number. The argument must be a floating-point value. The value is converted to a string of the form "-d,ddd,ddd.ddd...". The "n" format corresponds to the "f" format, except that the resulting string contains thousand separators.

m   Money. The argument must be a floating-point value. The value is converted to a string that represents a currency amount. The conversion is controlled by the CurrencyString, CurrencyFormat, NegCurrFormat, ThousandSeparator, DecimalSeparator, and CurrencyDecimals global variables, all of which are initialized from the Currency Format in the International section of the Windows Control Panel. If the format string contains a precision specifier, it overrides the value given by the CurrencyDecimals global variable.

p   Pointer. The argument must be a pointer value. The value is converted to an 8 character string that represents the pointers value in hexadecimal.

s   String. The argument must be a character, a string, or a PChar value. The string or character is inserted in place of the format specifier. The precision specifier, if present in the format string, specifies the maximum length of the resulting string. If the argument is a string that is longer than this maximum, the string is truncated.

x   Hexadecimal. The argument must be an integer value. The value is converted to a string of hexadecimal digits. If the format string contains a precision specifier, it indicates that the resulting string must contain at least the specified number of digits; if the value has fewer digits, the resulting string is left-padded with zeros.

function FormatFloat(Fmt: String; Value: Extended): String

Formats a floating point value.  

The following format specifiers are supported in the format string:

0        Digit place holder. If the value being formatted has a digit in the position where the '0' appears in the format string, then that digit is copied to the output string. Otherwise, a '0' is stored in that position in the output string.

#        Digit placeholder. If the value being formatted has a digit in the position where the '#' appears in the format string, then that digit is copied to the output string. Otherwise, nothing is stored in that position in the output string.

.        Decimal point. The first '.' character in the format string determines the location of the decimal separator in the formatted value; any additional '.' characters are ignored. The actual character used as a the decimal separator in the output string is determined by the DecimalSeparator global variable. The default value of DecimalSeparator is specified in the Number Format of the International section in the Windows Control Panel.

,        Thousand separator. If the format string contains one or more ',' characters, the output will have thousand separators inserted between each group of three digits to the left of the decimal point. The placement and number of ',' characters in the format string does not affect the output, except to indicate that thousand separators are wanted. The actual character used as a the thousand separator in the output is determined by the ThousandSeparator global variable. The default value of ThousandSeparator is specified in the Number Format of the International section in the Windows Control Panel.

function FormatDateTime(Fmt: String; DateTime: TDateTime): String

The following example assigns 'The meeting is on Wednesday, February 15, 1995 at 10:30 AM' to the string variable S.  

S := FormatDateTime('"The meeting is on " dddd, mmmm d, yyyy, " at " hh:mm AM/PM', StrToDateTime('2/15/95 10:30am'));

All kind of arrays are supported: static (one- and multi-dimesional), dynamic, variant arrays. However, since the scripting control uses variant types 'behind the scene' there is a specific syntax for creating arrays that requires a call to the VarArrayCreate function. Here is an example of script that uses all array types:

var

 ar1: array[0..2] of Integer;

 ar2: array of Integer;

 ar3: Variant;

SetLength(ar2, 3);

ar3 := VarArrayCreate([0, 2], varInteger);

ar1[0] := 1;

ar2[0] := 1;

ar3[0] := 1;