position objects using time values

[jshumaker35]

According to the documentation on the ObjectCreate function (https://docs.mql4.com/objects/objectcreate), I should be able to pass a datetime value for the anchor point.  I have used multiple formats for the datetime value.  Regardless of the format of the datetime value, the object is always placed at 1970.01.01 00:00

[Fernando Carreiro]

jshumaker35: According to the documentation on the ObjectCreate function (https://docs.mql4.com/objects/objectcreate), I should be able to pass a datetime value for the anchor point.  I have used multiple formats for the datetime value.  Regardless of the format of the datetime value, the object is always placed at 1970.01.01 00:00

Show your code sample so we can analyse what you are doing wrong!

[jshumaker35]

Fernando Carreiro:
Show your code sample so we can analyse what you are doing wrong!

ObjectCreate(0,"arrow",OBJ_ARROW,0,2018-09-20,1.3297);

I used the line of code above with a hard coded datetime value.  The screen shot shows the time parameter of the object in the chart

[Fernando Carreiro]

jshumaker35: I used the line of code above with a hard coded datetime value.  The screen shot shows the time parameter of the object in the chart

That is not a proper date format!

ObjectCreate(0,"arrow",OBJ_ARROW,0,2018-09-20,1.3297);

This is a proper date format:

ObjectCreate(0,"arrow",OBJ_ARROW,0,D'2018.09.20',1.3297);

Read the documentation on the datetime data type:

Datetime Type

The datetime type is intended for storing the date and time as the number of seconds elapsed since January 01, 1970. This type occupies 8 bytes of memory.

Constants of the date and time can be represented as a literal string, which consists of 6 parts showing the numerical value of the year, month, day (or day, month, year), hours, minutes and seconds. The constant is enclosed in single quotation marks and starts with the D character.

Values range from 1 January, 1970 to 31 December, 3000. Either date (year , month, day) or time (hours, minutes, seconds), or all together can be omitted.

With literal date specification, it is desirable that you specify year, month and day. Otherwise the compiler returns a warning about an incomplete entry.  

Examples:

datetime NY=D'2015.01.01 00:00';     // Time of beginning of year 2015
datetime d1=D'1980.07.19 12:30:27';  // Year Month Day Hours Minutes Seconds
datetime d2=D'19.07.1980 12:30:27';  // Equal to D'1980.07.19 12:30:27';
datetime d3=D'19.07.1980 12';        // Equal to D'1980.07.19 12:00:00'
datetime d4=D'01.01.2004';           // Equal to D'01.01.2004 00:00:00'
datetime compilation_date=__DATE__;             // Compilation date
datetime compilation_date_time=__DATETIME__;    // Compilation date and time
datetime compilation_time=__DATETIME__-__DATE__;// Compilation time
//--- Examples of declarations after which compiler warnings will be returned
datetime warning1=D'12:30:27';       // Equal to D'[date of compilation] 12:30:27'
datetime warning2=D'';               // Equal to __DATETIME__

The string representation of datetime type depends on compilation mode:

  datetime date=D'2014.03.05 15:46:58';
  string str="mydate="+date;
//--- str="mydate=1394034418" - without #property strict
//--- str="mydate=2014.03.05 15:46:58" - with #property strict