Migrating from Pine Built ins

Migrating from Pine Built-ins

What each built-in becomes, and what you get for the change. Nothing here is deprecated: Pine's own functions are fine for what they do, and this page is about the cases where they answer only half the question.

The mapping

Built-in	std_time	What changes
dayofweek	d.weekday()	A Weekday enum instead of an int, so 0-versus-1 confusion cannot compile
dayofweek.monday	t.Weekday.MONDAY	Same, and to_pine_dow() converts back
timestamp(tz, y, m, d, h, mi)	z.to_unix(y, m, d, h, mi)	Gaps and overlaps are resolved explicitly rather than silently
str.format_time(ms, f, tz)	t.format_time(ms, f, z)	A Zone checked at compile time, and a real ISO week-year Y
time(tf, session)	sess.is_open(ms)	Holidays, half days and lunch breaks honoured
session state change	sess.is_last_bar(time, time_close)	Fires on the closing bar, not one bar later
ta.change(time("D"))	t.changed(time[1], time, t.TimeUnit.DAY, z)	A real civil day boundary in a named zone
hand-rolled holiday list	d.is_trading_day(ex)	Twelve calendars, observance shifts, named closures
year, month, dayofmonth	d.Year, d.Month, d.Day	Fields of one record you can also do arithmetic on

Day of week

//@version=6
indicator("dow", overlay = false)
import The_Peaceful_Lizard/std_time/1 as t

t.DateTime d = t.unix_to_date_zone(time, t.Zone.NEW_YORK)

bool friday_new  = d.weekday() == t.Weekday.FRIDAY
bool friday_old  = dayofweek == dayofweek.friday
int  back_to_pine = d.weekday().to_pine_dow()

plot(friday_new == friday_old ? 1 : 0)
plot(back_to_pine)

Three numbering schemes meet here and none agree: this library counts Sunday as 0, ISO counts Monday as 1, Pine counts Sunday as 1. to_int, to_iso_dow and to_pine_dow are the three ways out, and the enum means you rarely need any of them.

Building an instant from civil fields

//@version=6
indicator("timestamp", overlay = false)
import The_Peaceful_Lizard/std_time/1 as t

int old_way = timestamp("America/New_York", 2025, 3, 9, 2, 30)
int new_way = t.Zone.NEW_YORK.to_unix(2025, 3, 9, 2, 30)
int refused = t.Zone.NEW_YORK.to_unix(2025, 3, 9, 2, 30, 0, 0, t.Resolver.REJECT)

plot(old_way)
plot(new_way)
plot(refused)

02:30 on 9 March 2025 never happened in New York. The built-in gives you something anyway. Resolver.REJECT returns na so you find out, and is_gap/is_ambiguous tell you which of the two problems it was.

Formatting

//@version=6
indicator("format", overlay = false)
import The_Peaceful_Lizard/std_time/1 as t

string a = str.format_time(time, "yyyy-MM-dd", t.Zone.TOKYO.to_iana())
string b = t.format_time(time, "yyyy-MM-dd", t.Zone.TOKYO)
string c = t.format_time(time, "YYYY-'W'ww", t.Zone.TOKYO)

plot(str.length(a) + str.length(b) + str.length(c))

format_time takes a Zone, not a string, so syminfo.timezone will not compile into it. That is deliberate: a string typo is a runtime surprise, and a UTC default would silently mislabel every evening New York bar. Use z.to_iana() when you genuinely want the built-in, as in a.

Y is the ISO week-based year, which str.format_time does not offer.

Session membership

//@version=6
indicator("session", overlay = true)
import The_Peaceful_Lizard/std_time/1 as t

var t.Session sess = t.session_of(t.SessionId.US_REGULAR)

bool in_new = sess.is_open(time)
bool in_old = not na(time("1", "0930-1600", "America/New_York"))

bgcolor(in_new ? color.new(color.green, 90) : na)
plot(in_new == in_old ? 0 : 1)

The two agree on ordinary days. They part company on Thanksgiving, when the built-in session string still reports a session, and on the day after, when it reports one until 16:00 though the market shut at 13:00.

New day in another zone

//@version=6
indicator("boundary", overlay = false)
import The_Peaceful_Lizard/std_time/1 as t

bool new_tokyo = t.changed(time[1], time, t.TimeUnit.DAY, t.Zone.TOKYO)
bool new_ny    = t.changed(time[1], time, t.TimeUnit.DAY, t.Zone.NEW_YORK)
bool new_week  = t.changed(time[1], time, t.TimeUnit.WEEK, t.Zone.LONDON, t.Weekday.MONDAY)

plot(new_tokyo ? 1 : 0)
plot(new_ny ? 2 : 0)
plot(new_week ? 3 : 0)

changed compares civil fields, so a daylight-saving transition does not read as a boundary. It returns false rather than na when either side is na, so guard bar one if that matters.

Things to expect while porting

• Every imported type takes your alias. t.DateTime, not DateTime. The error message does not mention imports.
• plus_days is not plus_hours(24). Pick by what you meant. See Civil and Exact Arithmetic.
• Assignment aliases. t.DateTime b = a does not copy. See Value Semantics.
• The import does not eat your token budget. A library compiles separately, so porting to std_time does not cost you compiled size. See Performance and Limits.

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