Procedure

   etcal_c ( Convert ET to Calendar format ) 

   void etcal_c ( SpiceDouble   et,
                  SpiceInt      callen,
                  SpiceChar   * calstr )

Abstract

   Convert from an ephemeris epoch measured in seconds past
   the epoch of J2000 to a calendar string format using a
   formal calendar free of leapseconds.

Required_Reading

   TIME

Keywords

   TIME

Brief_I/O

   VARIABLE  I/O  DESCRIPTION
   --------  ---  --------------------------------------------------
   et         I   Ephemeris time measured in seconds past J2000.
   callen     I   Declared length of output string `calstr'.
   calstr     O   A standard calendar representation of `et'.

Detailed_Input

   et          is an epoch measured in ephemeris seconds
               past the epoch of J2000.

   callen      is the declared length of the output string `calstr'. This
               length must be large enough to hold the output string plus the
               null-terminator character. `callen' should be at least 49
               characters.

Detailed_Output

   calstr      is a calendar string representing the input ephemeris
               epoch. This string is based upon extending the
               Gregorian Calendar backward and forward indefinitely
               keeping the same rules for determining leap years.
               Moreover, there is no accounting for leapseconds.

               To be sure that all of the date can be stored in
               `calstr', it should be declared to have length at
               least 49 characters, including the null-terminator
               character.

               The string will have the following format

                  year (era) mon day hr:mn:sc.sss

               Where:

                  year --- is the year
                  era  --- is the chronological era associated with
                           the date. For years after 999 A.D.
                           the era is omitted. For years
                           between 1 A.D. and 999 A.D. (inclusive)
                           era is the string "A.D." For epochs
                           before 1 A.D. Jan 1 00:00:00, era is
                           given as "B.C." and the year is converted
                           to years before the "Christian Era".
                           The last B.C. epoch is

                             1 B.C. DEC 31 23:59:59.999

                           The first A.D. epoch (which occurs .001
                           seconds after the last B.C. epoch) is:

                              1 A.D. JAN 1 00:00:00.000

                           Note: there is no year 0 A.D. or 0 B.C.
                  mon  --- is a 3-letter abbreviation for the month
                           in all capital letters.
                  day  --- is the day of the month
                  hr   --- is the hour of the day (between 0 and 23)
                           leading zeros are added to hr if the
                           numeric value is less than 10.
                  mn   --- is the minute of the hour (0 to 59)
                           leading zeros are added to mn if the
                           numeric value is less than 10.
                  sc.sss   is the second of the minute to 3 decimal
                           places ( 0 to 59.999). Leading zeros
                           are added if the numeric value is less
                           than 10. Seconds are truncated, not
                           rounded.

Parameters

   None.

Exceptions

   1)  If the input `et' is so large that the corresponding
       number of days since 1 A.D. Jan 1, 00:00:00 is
       within 1 of overflowing or underflowing an integer,
       `et' will not be converted to the correct string
       representation rather, the string returned will
       state that the epoch was before or after the day
       that is intmin_c +1 or intmax_c - 1 days after
       1 A.D. Jan 1, 00:00:00.

   2)  If the output string is not sufficiently long to hold
       the full date, it will be truncated on the right.

   3)  If the `calstr' output string pointer is null, the error
       SPICE(NULLPOINTER) is signaled.

   4)  If the `calstr' output string has length less than two
       characters, the error SPICE(STRINGTOOSHORT) is signaled, since
       the output string is too short to contain one character of
       output data plus a null terminator.

Files

   None.

Particulars

   This is an error free routine for converting ephemeris epochs
   represented as seconds past the J2000 epoch to formal
   calendar strings based upon the Gregorian Calendar. This formal
   time is often useful when one needs a human recognizable
   form of an ephemeris epoch. There is no accounting for leap
   seconds in the output times produced.

   Note: The calendar epochs produced are not the same as the
         UTC calendar epochs that correspond to `et'. The strings
         produced by this routine may vary from the corresponding
         UTC epochs by more than 1 minute.

   This routine can be used in creating error messages or
   in routines and programs in which one prefers to report
   times without employing leapseconds to produce exact UTC
   epochs.

Examples

   The numerical results shown for this example may differ across
   platforms. The results depend on the SPICE kernels used as
   input, the compiler and supporting libraries, and the machine
   specific arithmetic implementation.

   1) Suppose you wish to report that no data is available at a
      particular ephemeris epoch `et'. The following code example
      shows how you might accomplish this task.


      Example code begins here.


      /.
         Program etcal_ex1
      ./
      #include <stdio.h>
      #include "SpiceUsr.h"

      int main( )
      {
         /.
         Constants.
         ./
         #define STRLEN   48

         SpiceDouble      et = 0.0;

         /.
         Local variables
         ./
         SpiceChar        string [STRLEN];

         /.
         Convert the ephemeris time to a calendar string format.
         ./
         etcal_c  ( et, STRLEN, string );

         /.
         Output the desired report.
         ./
         printf ( "There is no data available for the body\n" );
         printf ( "at requested time: %s ( %f )\n", string, et );

         return ( 0 );
      }


      When this program was executed on a Mac/Intel/cc/64-bit
      platform, the output was:


      There is no data available for the body
      at requested time: 2000 JAN 01 12:00:00.000 ( 0.000000 )

Restrictions

   1)  One must keep in mind when using this routine that
       ancient times are not based upon the Gregorian
       calendar. For example the 0 point of the Julian
       Date system is 4713 B.C. Jan 1, 12:00:00 on the Julian
       Calendar. If one formalized the Gregorian calendar
       and extended it indefinitely, the zero point of the Julian
       date system corresponds to 4714 B.C. NOV 24 12:00:00 on
       the Gregorian calendar. There are several reasons for this.
       Leap years in the Julian calendar occur every
       4 years (including *all* centuries). Moreover,  the
       Gregorian calendar "effectively" begins on 15 Oct, 1582 A.D.
       which is 5 Oct, 1582 A.D. in the Julian Calendar.

       Therefore you must be careful in your interpretation
       of ancient dates produced by this routine.

Literature_References

   [1]  J. Jespersen and J. Fitz-Randolph, "From Sundials to Atomic
        Clocks, Understanding Time and Frequency," Dover
        Publications, Inc. New York, 1982.

Author_and_Institution

   J. Diaz del Rio     (ODC Space)
   K.R. Gehringer      (JPL)
   W.L. Taber          (JPL)
   E.D. Wright         (JPL)

Version

   -CSPICE Version 1.1.0, 02-AUG-2021 (JDR)

       Changed the argument names "lenout" and "string" to "callen" and
       "calstr" for consistency with other routines.

       Edited the header to comply with NAIF standard.

       Created complete code example from existing code fragments and added
       solution.

       Added entries #3 and #4 to -Exceptions section. Fixed wrong output
       format description in -Detailed_Output. Added TIME required reading.

   -CSPICE Version 1.0.0, 05-MAR-1998 (EDW) (WLT) (KRG)

Index_Entries

   Convert ephemeris time to a formal calendar date

Link to routine etcal_c source file etcal_c.c