[gdal-dev] Design for sub-second accuracy in OGR ?

Even Rouault even.rouault at spatialys.com
Mon Apr 6 04:48:47 PDT 2015


Le lundi 06 avril 2015 11:32:33, Dmitriy Baryshnikov a écrit :
> The first solution looks reasonable. But there is lack in precision
> field - there the only time is significant:
> 
> ODTP_HMSm
> ODTP_HMS
> ODTP_HM
> ODTP_H

As I didn't want to multiply the values in the enumeration, my intent was to 
reuse the ODTP_YMDxxxx values for OFTTime only. This was what I wanted to 
intend with the precision between parenthesis in the comment of ODTP_YMDH 
"Year, month, day (if OFTDateTime) and hour"

Or perhaps, the enumeration should capture the most precise part of the 
(date)time structure  ?
ODTP_Year
ODTP_Month
ODTP_Day
ODTP_Hour
ODTP_Minute
ODTP_Second
ODTP_Millisecond

> 
> etc.
> 
> Best regards,
>      Dmitry
> 
> 05.04.2015 22:25, Even Rouault пишет:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > In an effort of revisiting http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/ticket/2680, which
> > is about lack of precision of the current datetime structure, I've
> > imagined different solutions how to modify the OGRField structure, and
> > failed to pick up one that would be the obvious solution, so opinions
> > are welcome.
> > 
> > The issue is how to add (at least) microsecond accuracy to the datetime
> > structure, as a few formats support it explicitely or implicitely :
> > MapInfo, GPX, Atom (GeoRSS driver), GeoPackage, SQLite, PostgreSQL, CSV,
> > GeoJSON, ODS, XLSX, KML (potentially GML too)...
> > 
> > Below a few potential solutions :
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Solution 1) : Millisecond accuracy, second becomes a float
> > 
> > This is the solution I've prototyped.
> > 
> > typedef union {
> > [...]
> > 
> >      struct {
> >      
> >          GInt16  Year;
> >          GByte   Month;
> >          GByte   Day;
> >          GByte   Hour;
> >          GByte   Minute;
> >          GByte   TZFlag;
> >          GByte   Precision; /* value in OGRDateTimePrecision */
> >          float   Second; /* from 00.000 to 60.999 (millisecond accuracy)
> >          */
> >      
> >      } Date;
> > 
> > } OGRField
> > 
> > So sub-second precision is representing with a single precision floating
> > point number, storing both integral and decimal parts. (we could
> > theorically have a hundredth of millisecond accuracy, 10^-5 s, since
> > 6099999 fits on the 23 bits of the mantissa)
> > 
> > Another addition is the Precision field that indicates which parts of the
> > datetime structure are significant.
> > 
> > /** Enumeration that defines the precision of a DateTime.
> > 
> >    * @since GDAL 2.0
> >    */
> > 
> > typedef enum
> > {
> > 
> >      ODTP_Undefined,     /**< Undefined */
> >      ODTP_Guess,         /**< Only valid when setting through
> >      SetField(i,year,
> > 
> > month...) where OGR will guess */
> > 
> >      ODTP_Y,             /**< Year is significant */
> >      ODTP_YM,            /**< Year and month are significant*/
> >      ODTP_YMD,           /**< Year, month and day are significant */
> >      ODTP_YMDH,          /**< Year, month, day (if OFTDateTime) and hour
> >      are
> > 
> > significant */
> > 
> >      ODTP_YMDHM,         /**< Year, month, day (if OFTDateTime), hour and
> > 
> > minute are significant */
> > 
> >      ODTP_YMDHMS,        /**< Year, month, day (if OFTDateTime), hour,
> >      minute
> > 
> > and integral second are significant */
> > 
> >      ODTP_YMDHMSm,       /**< Year, month, day (if OFTDateTime), hour,
> >      minute
> > 
> > and second with microseconds are significant */
> > } OGRDateTimePrecision;
> > 
> > I think this is important since "2015/04/05 17:12:34" and "2015/04/05
> > 17:12:34.000" do not really mean the same thing and it might be good to
> > be able to preserve the original accuracy when converting between
> > formats.
> > 
> > A drawback of this solution is that the size of the OGRField structure
> > increases from 8 bytes to 12 on 32 bit builds (and remain 16 bytes on 64
> > bit). This is probably not that important since in most cases not that
> > many OGRField structures are instanciated at one time (typically, you
> > iterate over features one at a time).
> > This could be more of a problem for use cases that involve the MEM
> > driver, as it keep all features in memory.
> > 
> > Another drawback is that the change of the structure might not be
> > directly noticed by application developers as the Second field name is
> > preserved, but a new Precision field is added, so there's a risk that
> > Precision is let uninitialized if the field is set through
> > OGRFeature::SetField(int iFieldIndex, OGRField* psRawField). That could
> > lead to unexpected formatting (but hopefully not crashes with defensive
> > programming). However I'd think it is unlikely that many applications
> > directly manipulate OGRField directly, instead of using the getters and
> > setters of OGRFeature.
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Solution 2) : Millisecond accuracy, second and milliseconds in distinct
> > fields
> > 
> > typedef union {
> > [...]
> > 
> >      struct {
> >      
> >          GInt16  Year;
> >          GByte   Month;
> >          GByte   Day;
> >          GByte   Hour;
> >          GByte   Minute;
> >          GByte   TZFlag;
> >          GByte   Precision; /* value in OGRDateTimePrecision */
> >          GByte   Second; /* from 0 to 60 */
> > 	
> > 	GUInt16 Millisecond; /* from 0 to 999 */
> > 	
> >      } Date;
> > 
> > } OGRField
> > 
> > Same size of structure as in 1)
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Solution 3) : Millisecond accuracy, pack all fields
> > 
> > Conceptually, this would use bit fields to avoid wasting unused bits :
> > 
> > typedef union {
> > [...]
> > 
> >    struct {
> >    
> >      GInt16        Year;
> >      GUIntBig     Month:4;
> >      GUIntBig     Day:5;
> >      GUIntBig     Hour:5;
> >      GUIntBig     Minute:6;
> >      GUIntBig     Second:6;
> >      GUIntBig     Millisecond:10; /* 0-999 */
> >      GUIntBig     TZFlag:8;
> >      GUIntBig     Precision:4;
> >   
> >   } Date;
> > 
> > } OGRField;
> > 
> > This was proposed in the above mentionned ticket. And as there were
> > enough remaining bits, I've also added the Precision field (and in all
> > other solutions).
> > 
> > The advantage is that sizeof(mydate) remains 8 bytes on 32 bits builds.
> > 
> > But the C standard only defines bitfields of int/unsigned int, so this is
> > not portable, plus the fact that the way bits are packed is not defined
> > by the standard, so different compilers could come up with different
> > packing. A workaround is to do the bit manipulation through macros :
> > 
> > typedef union {
> > [...]
> > 
> >    struct {
> > 	
> > 	GUIntBig	opaque;
> > 	
> >    } Date;
> > 
> > } OGRField;
> > 
> > #define GET_BITS(x,y_bits,shift)        (int)(((x).Date.opaque >>
> > (shift)) & ((1 << (y_bits))-1))
> > 
> > #define GET_YEAR(x)              (short)GET_BITS(x,16,64-16)
> > #define GET_MONTH(x)             GET_BITS(x,4,64-16-4)
> > #define GET_DAY(x)               GET_BITS(x,5,64-16-4-5)
> > #define GET_HOUR(x)              GET_BITS(x,5,64-16-4-5-5)
> > #define GET_MINUTE(x)            GET_BITS(x,6,64-16-4-5-5-6)
> > #define GET_SECOND(x)            GET_BITS(x,6,64-16-4-5-5-6-6)
> > #define GET_MILLISECOND(x)       GET_BITS(x,10,64-16-4-5-5-6-6-10)
> > #define GET_TZFLAG(x)            GET_BITS(x,8,64-16-4-5-5-6-6-10-8)
> > #define GET_PRECISION(x)         GET_BITS(x,4,64-16-4-5-5-6-6-10-8-4)
> > 
> > #define SET_BITS(x,y,y_bits,shift)  (x).Date.opaque = ((x).Date.opaque &
> > (~( (GUIntBig)((1 << (y_bits))-1) << (shift) )) | ((GUIntBig)(y) <<
> > (shift)))
> > 
> > #define SET_YEAR(x,val)            SET_BITS(x,val,16,64-16)
> > #define SET_MONTH(x,val)           SET_BITS(x,val,4,64-16-4)
> > #define SET_DAY(x,val)             SET_BITS(x,val,5,64-16-4-5)
> > #define SET_HOUR(x,val)            SET_BITS(x,val,5,64-16-4-5-5)
> > #define SET_MINUTE(x,val)          SET_BITS(x,val,6,64-16-4-5-5-6)
> > #define SET_SECOND(x,val)          SET_BITS(x,val,6,64-16-4-5-5-6-6)
> > #define SET_MILLISECOND(x,val)     SET_BITS(x,val,10,64-16-4-5-5-6-6-10)
> > #define SET_TZFLAG(x,val)          SET_BITS(x,val,8,64-16-4-5-5-6-6-10-8)
> > #define SET_PRECISION(x,val)      
> > SET_BITS(x,val,4,64-16-4-5-5-6-6-10-8-4)
> > 
> > Main advantage: the size of OGRField remains unchanged (so 8 bytes on
> > 32-bit builds).
> > 
> > Drawback: manipulation of datetime members is less natural, but there are
> > not that many places in the GDAL code base were the OGRField.Date
> > members are used, so it is not much that a problem.
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Solution 4) : Microsecond accuracy with one field
> > 
> > Solution 1) used a float for second and sub-second, but a float has only
> > 23 bits of mantissa, which is enough to represent second with
> > millisecond accuracy, but not for microsecond (you need 26 bits for
> > that). So use a 32-bit integer instead of a 32-bit floating point.
> > 
> > typedef union {
> > [...]
> > 
> >      struct {
> >      
> >          GInt16  Year;
> >          GByte   Month;
> >          GByte   Day;
> >          GByte   Hour;
> >          GByte   Minute;
> >          GByte   TZFlag;
> >          GByte   Precision; /* value in OGRDateTimePrecision */
> >          GUInt32 Microseconds; /* 00000000 to 59999999 */
> >      
> >      } Date;
> > 
> > } OGRField
> > 
> > Same as solution 1: sizeof(OGRField) becomes 12 bytes on 32-bit builds
> > (and remain 16 bytes on 64-bit builds)
> > 
> > We would need to add an extra value in OGRDateTimePrecision to mean the
> > microsecond accuracy.
> > 
> > Not really clear we need microseconds accuracy... Most formats that
> > support subsecond accuracy use ISO 8601 representation (e.g. YYYY-MM-
> > DDTHH:MM:SS.sssssZ) that doesn't define the maximal number of decimals
> > beyond second. From
> > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/datatype-datetime.html,
> > PostgreSQL supports microsecond accuracy.
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Solution 5) : Microsecond with 3 fields
> > 
> > A variant where we split second into 3 integer parts:
> > 
> > typedef union {
> > [...]
> > 
> >      struct {
> >      
> >          GInt16  Year;
> >          GByte   Month;
> >          GByte   Day;
> >          GByte   Hour;
> >          GByte   Minute;
> >          GByte   TZFlag;
> >          GByte   Precision; /* value in OGRDateTimePrecision */
> > 	
> > 	GByte   Second; /* 0 to 59 */
> > 	
> >          GUInt16  Millisecond; /* 0 to 999 */
> >          GUInt16 Microsecond; /* 0 to 999 */
> >      
> >      } Date;
> > 
> > } OGRField
> > 
> > Drawback: due to alignment, sizeof(OGRField) becomes 16 bytes on 32-bit
> > builds (and remain 16 bytes on 64-bit builds)
> > 
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Solution 6) : Nanosecond accuracy and beyond !
> > 
> > Now that we are using 16 bytes, why not having nanosecond accuracy ?
> > 
> > typedef union {
> > [...]
> > 
> >      struct {
> >      
> >          GInt16  Year;
> >          GByte   Month;
> >          GByte   Day;
> >          GByte   Hour;
> >          GByte   Minute;
> >          GByte   TZFlag;
> >          GByte   Precision; /* value in OGRDateTimePrecision */
> > 	
> > 	double   Second; /* 0.000000000 to 60.999999999 */
> > 	
> >      } Date;
> > 
> > } OGRField
> > 
> > Actually we even have picosecond accuracy! (since for picoseconds, we
> > need 46 bits and a double has 52 bits of mantissa). And if we use a
> > 64-bit integer instead of a double, we can have femtosecond accuracy ;-)
> > 
> > Any preference ?
> > 
> > Even
> 
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