need help for coding a time window ! - page 2

[Peter Williams]

Nikolay Georgiev #: Paul or Bir

The code below would be suitable for MT5 (just decided to include this in my EA).  Obviously comment out or delete from string msg through to MessageBox

input bool TimeControl = true;                  // Filter time of traiding (true/false)
input string   TradingStart = "08:00";          // Start Trade
input string   TradingEnd = "22:00";            // End Trade 

int StartHours;
int StartMinutes;
int EndHours ;
int EndMinutes;
bool allowOpen;
MqlDateTime    stm;

void OnInit()
{  
   TradingHoursCheck();
}
void OnTick()
{  TradingHoursCheck();
   if(!TimeControl)  allowOpen=true;
}
void TradingHoursCheck()
{  allowOpen            = false;
   TimeToStruct(TimeCurrent(),stm);
   StartHours     = (int) StringToInteger(StringSubstr(TradingStart,0,2));
   StartMinutes   = (int) StringToInteger(StringSubstr(TradingStart,3,2));
   EndHours       = (int) StringToInteger(StringSubstr(TradingEnd,0,2));
   EndMinutes     = (int) StringToInteger(StringSubstr(TradingEnd,3,2));
   if  ( ( stm.hour > StartHours || ( stm.hour == StartHours && stm.min >= StartMinutes )) && 
         ( stm.hour < EndHours   || ( stm.hour == EndHours   && stm.min <= EndMinutes   )))  allowOpen=true; 
   string msg = "TradingStart = "+TradingStart+" to TradingEnd = "+TradingEnd;
   msg = msg + "\nStartHours = "+IntegerToString(StartHours)+" StartMinutes = "+IntegerToString(StartMinutes);
   msg = msg + "\nEndHours = "+IntegerToString(EndHours)+" EndMinutes = "+IntegerToString(EndMinutes);
   msg = msg + "\nstm.hour = "+IntegerToString(stm.hour)+" stm.min = "+IntegerToString(stm.min);
   msg = msg + "\nallowOpen = "+allowOpen;
   MessageBox(msg);
   if(!TimeControl)  allowOpen=true;
}

[William Roeder]

input string   TradingStart = "08:00";

When dealing with time, a lot of people use strings; they can not be optimized. Using (int) seconds or (double) hours and fraction can be inputs.

See also Dealing with Time (Part 1): The Basics - MQL5 Articles (2021.10.01)
Dealing with Time (Part 2): The Functions - MQL5 Articles (2021.10.08)
MQL5 Programming Basics: Time - MQL5 Articles (2013.04.26)

[Peter Williams]

Many thanks,

I normally use int,ulong double but hadn't realised the optimisation implication