A closed time interval. It extends from the start time to the end time,
and includes both: [startTime, endTime]
. Valid time intervals depend
on the
`MetricKind
</monitoring/api/ref_v3/rest/v3/projects.metricDescriptors#MetricKind>`__
of the metric value. In no case can the end time be earlier than the
start time.
For a
GAUGE
metric, thestartTime
value is technically optional; if no value is specified, the start time defaults to the value of the end time, and the interval represents a single point in time. If both start and end times are specified, they must be identical. Such an interval is valid only forGAUGE
metrics, which are point-in-time measurements.For
DELTA
andCUMULATIVE
metrics, the start time must be earlier than the end time.In all cases, the start time of the next interval must be at least a microsecond after the end time of the previous interval. Because the interval is closed, if the start time of a new interval is the same as the end time of the previous interval, data written at the new start time could overwrite data written at the previous end time.
Optional. The beginning of the time interval. The default value for the start time is the end time. The start time must not be later than the end time.