How to access time in Strategy Tester

#1

I’m clearly missing something because the timer is not beating appropriately for me in the ST.

Here’s my test program:

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//|                                                         test.mq5 |
//|                        Copyright 2017, MetaQuotes Software Corp. |
//|                                             https://www.mql5.com |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
#property copyright "Copyright 2017, MetaQuotes Software Corp."
#property link      "https://www.mql5.com"
#property version   "1.00"
 #include <Files\File.mqh>
#include <Files\FileTxt.mqh>

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Expert initialization function                                   |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
int OnInit()
  {
//--- create timer
   EventSetTimer(60);
      
//---
   return(INIT_SUCCEEDED);
  }
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Expert deinitialization function                                 |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
void OnDeinit(const int reason)
  {
//--- destroy timer
   EventKillTimer();
   Print ("TT " + total_ticks);
   File.Close();
    
  }
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Expert tick function                                             |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
int total_ticks;
void OnTick()
  {
//---
  }

//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Timer function                                                   |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
 CFileTxt     File;
 void OnTimer()
  {
  total_ticks = total_ticks+1;
  MqlDateTime time_now;
  TimeToStruct(TimeCurrent(),time_now);
  
  int fh = File.Open("times.txt",FILE_COMMON|FILE_WRITE|FILE_READ|FILE_BIN,9);
  FileSeek(fh,0,SEEK_END);
  FileWriteString(fh, TimeCurrent() +"\r\n");    
  
  }
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+

…and here’s a bit of the output (many beats at the same time and then missing beats at other times):

2017.03.20 05:42:59

2017.03.20 05:53:59

2017.03.20 05:54:59

2017.03.20 05:54:59

2017.03.20 05:54:59

2017.03.20 05:54:59

2017.03.20 05:54:59

2017.03.20 05:59:59

2017.03.20 05:59:59

2017.03.20 06:02:00

2017.03.20 06:02:59

2017.03.20 06:03:30

2017.03.20 06:03:30

2017.03.20 06:03:30

2017.03.20 06:03:30

Thank you.

#2

You save TimeCurrent() which is the time of last tick from server(history). Your output is correct, what are you expecting ?

#3

Aha, yes, I was definitely missing something. namely that TimeCurrent() is not the same as timeGMT().

Thank you.

#4

TimeTradeServer();

#5

How is TimeTradeServer different from TimeCurrent? Thx

#6

This time is not tied to tick time.