Random Date Generator

Programming Questions

hellocatf..

in Programming Questions • 2 years ago

I'm trying to create a random date generator (borrowed some code from here) that generates dates in the future but I'm encountering a few problems. With my current code (below) the random dates sometimes are in the past or have the value "00". IS there a way to get around this, perhaps with using day() seconds() etc?

PFont reloj;

int h; // hour
int m; // minute
int s; // second

int d; // day
int mo; // month
int y; // year

int lastsecond = 0;

void setup() {
frameRate(60);
reloj = loadFont("Commodore_64_Angled-48.vlw");
size(700,100);
loop();
textFont (reloj);
}

void draw() {
h = int(random(24));
m = int(random(60));
s = int(random(60));

d = int(random(31));
mo = int(random(12));
y = int(year()+random(2));

if (lastsecond != s) {
    background(0);
    String y2 = nf(y,2);
    String y3 = y2.substring(2,4);
    String date = nf(h,2)+":"+nf(m,2)+":"+nf(s,2)+" "+nf(d,2)+"/"+nf(mo,2)+"/"+y3;
    println (date);

    // print text on screen
    fill(114,234,183);
    text(date,23,60);
    filter(DILATE);
    filter(BLUR,8);
    fill(176,242,215);
    text(date,20,60);
    filter(BLUR,1);

    // horizontal lines
    for (int y = 0; y <= height; y+= 5) {
      strokeWeight(0.1);
      stroke(20,200,20,20);
      line (0, y, width, y);
    }
    saveFrame("fecha-####.png");
}
lastsecond = s;
fill(0,random(0,3));
rect(0,0,width,height);

//To select a date
if((keyCode == ENTER)) {
    noLoop();
}
}

Replies(4)

blindfish

Re: Random Date Generator

2 years ago

You'd definitely be better off using the Java Calendar class to do this. Your current code is capable of creating nonsensical dates like 31 February. Instead you can simply get today's date and use Calendar's add() method to add a random number of days, etc. to it. I must admit I don't think I've made much, if any, use of Calendar before, so thought I'd better make sure it's not too fiddly. Here's a quick demo (borrowing code from this pure Java example):

void setup() {
Calendar date = Calendar.getInstance(); // the current date/time
int numberOfDaysToAdd = (int) random(3650); // i.e. up to approximately ten years
date.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, numberOfDaysToAdd); // add to the current date
println(date.getTime());
}

hellocatf..

Re: Random Date Generator

2 years ago

Brilliant! I've never heard of the Calendar class before, so will definitely be making use of it.

I'm now having trouble printing the output date to the screen. the text command only works with strings, but apparently you can't convert a Date to a string (or anything else it would seem).

Is it in anyway possible to convert a Date to a string?

PhiLho

Re: Random Date Generator

2 years ago

In the See Also part of the Calendar page, there is the DataFormat link...
For finer control, you can use the Formatter class I advertised recently in another question.

hellocatf..

Re: Random Date Generator

2 years ago

Thanks for your help!

Finished sketch is up here http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=15612

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