[HeliScript - Knowledge] Special Specifications of the Date Type

Overview

The Date type available in HeliScript has some unique characteristics in the current Lib14 environment.
This article introduces these special specifications and provides solutions.

Environment

SDK Version: 14.2.1
Lib Version: 14.4
Unity: 2022.3.6.f1

Initialization

When assigning the earliest value to the Date type:

Date _newDate;
_newDate = hsCreateDateUTC(0,0,0,0,0,0,0);

This will not assign the expected value (it will instead use the current timestamp).

Instead, specify 1970-01-01 00:00:00.000 explicitly as follows:

Date _newDate;
_newDate = hsCreateDateUTC(1970,1,1,0,0,0,0);

Date Type Lists Do Not Function Properly

When creating a list of Date type, attempting to assign Date objects (e.g., using hsCreateDate()) to list elements results in the error:

"Cannot assign to class Date containing a destructor."

To create a list of dates, use a list of string instead. Convert Date to string using ToString(), and when you need to use them as Date objects, parse them back with hsParseDate().

// Creating a "Date type list" (workaround)
list<string> _dateList;
_dateList = new list<string>(10);

// Initializing the list
for(int i = 0; i < _dateList.Count(); i++) {
    _dateList[i] = hsCreateDateUTC(1970,1,1,0,0,0,0).ToString();
}

// Using the "Date type list" (workaround)
Date _date;
int _index;

_index = 5;

// Retrieve the 6th element of the "Date type list" (workaround)
_date = hsParseDate(_dateList[_index]);

Precautions When Initializing with string

When using hsParseDate() to create a Date object from a string, if the string is empty, a Date object with null content will be created.

Use hsCreateDateUTC(1970,1,1,0,0,0,0).ToString() or similar to ensure valid content is stored in the string variable.