# Adding up blocks of time - project with tasks **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 2, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-up-blocks-of-time-project-with-tasks/139306 "2008-06-02T20:31:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gorgeoussoul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gorgeoussoul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gorgeoussoul)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-up-blocks-of-time-project-with-tasks/139306/1 "2008-06-02T20:31:40Z")
I’m building a collection of project management screens. I want to be able to set up time estimates for each task in a project. And then I want to be able to sum all the estimates, so that I can give an expected completion date for the entire project. Some tasks are short (1/2 hour), but some are days long. How should I storing them in the db and how do I sum them? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![gorgeoussoul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gorgeoussoul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gorgeoussoul)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-up-blocks-of-time-project-with-tasks/139306/2 "2008-06-03T03:15:04Z")
Denise R. wrote: > I’m building a collection of project management screens. > > I want to be able to set up time estimates for each task in a project. > And then I want to be able to sum all the estimates, so that I can give > an expected completion date for the entire project. > > Some tasks are short (1/2 hour), but some are days long. > > How should I storing them in the db and how do I sum them? > > Thanks! Well, you could have a field for each time value: tasktime\_weeks tasktime\_days tasktime\_hours tasktime\_minutes sum the fields up from the records in your collection…, say the totals you get are: w = tasktime\_weeks = 4 d = tasktime\_days = 3 h = tasktime\_hours = 2 m = tasktime\_minutes = 30 you can add those up: duration = w.weeks + d.days + h.hours + m.minutes which in this case is the same as: duration = 4.weeks + 3.days + 2.hours + 30.minutes now… duration produces “31 days and 9000 seconds” which I’ll admit is not very useful, But… duration / 1.day produces 31 duration.to\_f / 1.day produces 31.10416 duration += duration + 12.hours 31 days and 52200 seconds duration / 1.day 31 duration.to\_f / 1.day 31.60416667 (duration.to\_f / 1.day).round 32 (duration.to\_f / 1.day).round(1) 31.6 you get the idea - play around with all this in the console and you’ll have it in no time. ---
**Author:** ![gorgeoussoul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gorgeoussoul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gorgeoussoul)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 12:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/adding-up-blocks-of-time-project-with-tasks/139306/3 "2008-06-04T12:17:03Z")
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Monday 02 June 2008 20:31:40 Denise R. wrote: > Some tasks are short (1/2 hour), but some are days long. > > How should I storing them in the db and how do I sum them? I’d store them as integer minutes, and introduce helpers and before\_filters that deal with presentation and user input conversions. Ciao, Sheldon. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFIRmtcpGJX8XSgas0RAhUvAJ9EMk4xnRvWVmeptVYG28v41wAyXQCfQ3Sn frij4GSGeQHdbN5MRiKd0VY= =gbLx -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----