BoostDateTime

Boost.Date_Time, commonly known as Boost.Date_Time or BoostDateTime, is a component of the Boost C++ Libraries that provides facilities for representing and manipulating dates, times, durations, and time zones. It offers a range of types for calendar concepts, time stamps, and intervals, along with arithmetic, comparison, formatting, and parsing support. The library aims to offer portable, cross-platform handling of common calendrical and clock-related tasks in C++ programs.

Core types and concepts include boost::gregorian::date for calendar dates, boost::posix_time::ptime for a specific moment in time, and boost::posix_time::time_duration for time intervals such as hours, minutes, and seconds. The library also provides higher-level constructs such as boost::local_time::local_date_time for time zone aware values and conversions between local times and universal times using named time zones.

Key features include robust arithmetic on dates and times, straightforward input and output streaming, and facilities to parse and format values as human-readable strings or standardized representations. The Gregorian calendar is the primary calendar system, with support for common operations like adding days, computing durations, and handling leap years. Time zone support via the local_time components enables conversions across different regions, accommodating daylight saving time where applicable.

Usage considerations include its complementarity to the standard library’s chrono facilities and its historical prevalence in legacy codebases that require explicit calendrical modeling beyond the capabilities of std::chrono. Boost.Date_Time is distributed under the Boost Software License and is intended for cross-platform C++ development, with broad adoption in projects that prioritize precise and portable date-time handling.