Time of Day Filter

The time of day filter restricts the time use variable to a particular range of time during the day. When a time of day filter is applied, only time spent in the activities (given other filter selections) during the specified time range is returned.

By default, the entire 24-hour period of the diary is included. However, applying this filter means that the user may look at how time is spent during a given set of hours. For example, researchers may want to look at time spent between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on a specified set of activities.

The user should note that the diary day spans different time ranges for different samples.

- For US: Between 1965 and 1998, respondents report activities from midnight of the previous day to midnight of the interview day. In the ATUS (2003 forward), respondents report their activities from 4:00 a.m. of the previous day to 4:00 a.m. of the interview day.
- For UK: Diaries start at 4am.
- For Spain: Diaries start at 6am.
- For Netherlands: Diaries start at midnight.
- For Hungary: Diaries start at 4am.
- For Bulgaria: Diaries start at 4am.
- For Israel: Diaries start at 4am.

You should be aware of these differences when you apply the filter to diaries that do not start at 12 am. For example, if you are applying a filter that extends beyond the 4:00 a.m. to midnight time range. In this case, activities taking place between midnight and 4:00 a.m. will be drawn from the end of the diary day. By contrast, for samples that starts at 12am, activities taking place between midnight and 4:00 a.m. will be drawn from the beginning of the diary day. The extract system will correctly sum time across any selected time range, even if it is outside of a particular survey's start or end time.