Understanding Service Desk Time
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Overview
This article shows how Service Desk maintains timestamps and how to convert it to real world time.
Date/Time
The value in date field for USD are coming from a generation that predates Windows. USD was developed on and for UNIX systems. UNIX Time it is the number of seconds elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970.
[USD time] 0 = [Real world] 1 January 1970 at 00h00:00
The mathematic function for time is...
[Gregorian] dd/mm/yyyy h:m:s = [USD Time in second] value + 1/1/1970
For easy calculation...
USD time / 86400 = number of days from 1970
The biggest problem with conversion is the non-linear scale of Gregorian date format (there are sometimes 28, 29, 30 or 31 days a month, 365 or 366 days a year). Conversion functions existing in your query or reporting tools are typically your best resource.
| SQL | VB |
|---|---|
| DATE_ADD | DATEADD |
| DATE_PART | DATEDIFF |
| DATE_SUB | DATEPART |
| DATEADD | DATEVALUE |
| DATEDIFF | |
| SUBDATE |
Note: Timestamps are always recorded in GMT +0 and the system times are displayed based on the timezone of the Primary Server.
Duration
Duration is another type of time value used by Service Desk. While it is not a direct reference to time, it is the difference between two timestamps.
duration = close_date - open_date
