How can I String Format a TimeSpan object with a custom format in NET

Question

What is the recommended way of formatting TimeSpan objects into  a string with a custom format

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Dim duration As New TimeSpan 1  12  23  62   DEBUG WriteLine  Time of Travel      duration ToString  dd  hh  mm  ss      It works for Framework 4  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ee372287 aspx

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If you want the duration format similar to youtube  given the number of seconds  int   duration     0  4  40  59  60  61  400  4000  40000  400000    foreach  int d in duration        Console WriteLine   0  6  - gt   1  10    d  d  gt  59   TimeSpan FromSeconds d  ToString   TrimStart  00   ToCharArray      string Format  0  0 00    d        Output        0 - gt        0 00      4 - gt        0 04     40 - gt        0 40     59 - gt        0 59     60 - gt        1 00     61 - gt        1 01    400 - gt        6 40   4000 - gt     1 06 40  40000 - gt    11 06 40 400000 - gt  4 15 06 40

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This is a pain in VS 2010  here s my workaround solution    public string DurationString                       get                                if  this Duration TotalHours  lt  24                      return new DateTime this Duration Ticks  ToString  HH mm                    else   If duration is more than 24 hours                                       double totalminutes   this Duration TotalMinutes                      double hours   totalminutes   60                      double minutes   this Duration TotalMinutes -  Math Floor hours    60                       string result   string Format   0   1    Math Floor hours  ToString  00    Math Floor minutes  ToString  00                         return result

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Here is my extension method   public static string ToFormattedString this TimeSpan ts        const string separator              if  ts TotalMilliseconds  lt  1    return  No time          return string Join separator  new string                 ts Days  gt  0   ts Days    ts Days  gt  1     days      day     null          ts Hours  gt  0   ts Hours    ts Hours  gt  1     hours      hour     null          ts Minutes  gt  0   ts Minutes    ts Minutes  gt  1     minutes      minute     null          ts Seconds  gt  0   ts Seconds    ts Seconds  gt  1     seconds      second     null          ts Milliseconds  gt  0   ts Milliseconds    ts Milliseconds  gt  1     milliseconds      millisecond     null        Where t   gt  t    null        Example call   string time   new TimeSpan 3  14  15  0  65  ToFormattedString      Output   3 days  14 hours  15 minutes  65 milliseconds

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I used the code below  It is long  but still it is one expression  and produces very friendly output  as it does not outputs days  hours  minutes  or seconds if they have value of zero   In the sample it produces output   4 days 1 hour 3 seconds    TimeSpan sp   new TimeSpan 4 1 0 3   string Format   0  1  2  3             sp Days  gt  0     sp Days  gt  1   sp ToString   d   d a y s      sp ToString   d   d a y      string Empty          sp Hours  gt  0    sp Hours  gt  1   sp ToString   h   h o u r s       sp ToString   h   h o u r      string Empty          sp Minutes  gt  0    sp Minutes  gt  1   sp ToString   m   m i n u t e s      sp ToString   m   m i n u t e      string Empty          sp Seconds  gt  0    sp Seconds  gt  1   sp ToString   s   s e c o n d s    sp ToString   s   s e c o n d s    string Empty

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This is awesome one   string Format   0 00   1 00   2 00                    int myTimeSpan TotalHours                 myTimeSpan Minutes                 myTimeSpan Seconds

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if  timeSpan TotalDays  lt  1      return timeSpan ToString   hh  mm  ss     return timeSpan TotalDays  lt  2       timeSpan ToString   d   d a y  hh  mm  ss         timeSpan ToString   d   d a y s  hh  mm  ss      All literal characters must be escaped

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One way is to create a DateTime object and use it for formatting   new DateTime myTimeSpan Ticks  ToString myCustomFormat      or using String Format  String Format   0 HHmmss    new DateTime myTimeSpan Ticks     This is the way I know  I hope someone can suggest a better way

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I use this method   I m Belgian and speak dutch so plural of hours and minutes is not just adding  s  to the end but almost a different word than singular   It may seem long but it is very readable I think    public static string SpanToReadableTime TimeSpan span                string   values   new string 4      4 slots  days  hours  minutes  seconds         StringBuilder readableTime   new StringBuilder             if  span Days  gt  0                        if  span Days    1                  values 0    span Days ToString       dag     day             else                 values 0    span Days ToString       dagen      days              readableTime Append values 0                readableTime Append                          else             values 0    String Empty            if  span Hours  gt  0                        if  span Hours    1                  values 1    span Hours ToString       uur      hour             else                 values 1    span Hours ToString       uren      hours              readableTime Append values 1                readableTime Append                           else             values 1    string Empty           if  span Minutes  gt  0                        if  span Minutes    1                  values 2    span Minutes ToString       minuut      minute             else                 values 2    span Minutes ToString       minuten      minutes              readableTime Append values 2                readableTime Append                          else             values 2    string Empty           if  span Seconds  gt  0                        if  span Seconds    1                  values 3    span Seconds ToString       seconde      second             else                 values 3    span Seconds ToString       seconden      seconds              readableTime Append values 3                      else             values 3    string Empty            return readableTime ToString           end SpanToReadableTime

User · Answer

Simple  Use TimeSpan ToString with c  g or G  More information at MSDN

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Personally  I like this approach   TimeSpan ts        string Format   0  d d  0  h h  0  m m  0  s s   ts     You can make this as custom as you like with no problems   string Format   0  d days  0  h hours  0  m min  0  s sec   ts   string Format   0  d d  0  h h  0  m    0  s      ts

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I would go with  myTimeSpan ToString  hh   mm   ss

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You can also go with   Dim ts As New TimeSpan 35  21  59  59     11  22  30  30       Dim TimeStr1 As String   String Format   0 c    ts  Dim TimeStr2 As String   New Date ts Ticks  ToString  dd HH mm ss     EDIT   You can also look at Strings Format       Dim ts As New TimeSpan 23  30  59      Dim str As String   Strings Format New DateTime ts Ticks    H mm ss

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Here is my version   It shows only as much as necessary  handles pluralization  negatives  and I tried to make it lightweight   Output Examples  0 seconds 1 404 seconds 1 hour  14 4 seconds 14 hours  57 minutes  22 473 seconds 1 day  14 hours  57 minutes  22 475 seconds   Code  public static class TimeSpanExtensions       public static string ToReadableString this TimeSpan timeSpan                int days    int  timeSpan Ticks   TimeSpan TicksPerDay           long subDayTicks   timeSpan Ticks   TimeSpan TicksPerDay           bool isNegative   false          if  timeSpan Ticks  lt  0L                        isNegative   true              days   -days              subDayTicks   -subDayTicks                     int hours    int   subDayTicks   TimeSpan TicksPerHour    24L           int minutes    int   subDayTicks   TimeSpan TicksPerMinute    60L           int seconds    int   subDayTicks   TimeSpan TicksPerSecond    60L           int subSecondTicks    int  subDayTicks   TimeSpan TicksPerSecond           double fractionalSeconds    double subSecondTicks   TimeSpan TicksPerSecond           var parts   new List lt string gt  4            if  days  gt  0              parts Add string Format   0  day 1    days  days    1   null    s             if  hours  gt  0              parts Add string Format   0  hour 1    hours  hours    1   null    s             if  minutes  gt  0              parts Add string Format   0  minute 1    minutes  minutes    1   null    s             if  fractionalSeconds Equals 0D                         switch  seconds                                case 0                         Only write  0 seconds  if we haven t written anything at all                      if  parts Count    0                          parts Add  0 seconds                        break                   case 1                      parts Add  1 second                        break                   default                      parts Add seconds     seconds                        break                                  else                       parts Add string Format   0  1       seconds   seconds  fractionalSeconds                       string resultString   string Join       parts           return isNegative     negative      resultString   resultString

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This is the approach I used my self with conditional formatting  and I post it here because I think this is clean way    quot  time Days  0       time Hours  0       time Minutes 00   time Seconds 00  quot   example of outputs   00 00  minimum  1 43 04  when we have hours  15 03 01  when hours are more than 1 digit  2 4 22 04  when we have days    The formatting is easy  time Days  0      the format before    is for when value is positive  negative values are ignored  and for zero values we have     in order to hide it in formatted string  note that the escaped backslash is necessary otherwise it will not format correctly

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For  NET 3 5 and lower you could use   string Format    0 00   1 00   2 00                     int myTimeSpan TotalHours                       myTimeSpan Minutes                       myTimeSpan Seconds     Code taken from a Jon Skeet answer on bytes  For  NET 4 0 and above  see DoctaJonez answer

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The Substring method works perfectly when you only want the Hours Minutes Seconds  It s simple  clean code and easy to understand        var yourTimeSpan   DateTime Now - DateTime Now AddMinutes -2        var formatted   yourTimeSpan ToString   Substring 0 8     00 00 00       Console WriteLine formatted

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Please note  this answer is for  Net 4 0 and above   If you want to format a TimeSpan in  Net 3 5 or below please see JohannesH s answer   Custom TimeSpan format strings were introduced in  Net 4 0   You can find a full reference of available format specifiers at the MSDN Custom TimeSpan Format Strings page   Here s an example timespan format string   string Format   0 hh   mm   ss    myTimeSpan     example output 15 36 15    UPDATE  and here is an example using C  6 string interpolation      myTimeSpan hh   mm   ss      example output 15 36 15   You need to escape the     character with a      which itself must be escaped unless you re using a verbatim string    This excerpt from the MSDN Custom TimeSpan Format Strings page explains about escaping the     and     characters in a format string      The custom TimeSpan format specifiers do not include placeholder separator symbols  such as the symbols that separate days from hours  hours from minutes  or seconds from fractional seconds  Instead  these symbols must be included in the custom format string as string literals  For example   dd hh mm  defines a period     as the separator between days and hours  and a colon     as the separator between hours and minutes

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I wanted to return a string such as  1 day 2 hours 3 minutes  and also take into account if for example days or minuttes are 0 and then not showing them  thanks to John Rasch for his answer which mine is barely an extension of  TimeSpan timeLeft   New Timespan 0  70  0   String Format   0  1  2  3  4  5        Math Floor timeLeft TotalDays     0             Math Floor timeLeft TotalDays  ToString              Math Floor timeLeft TotalDays     0        Math Floor timeLeft TotalDays     1    day      days        timeLeft Hours    0        timeLeft Hours ToString              timeLeft Hours    0        timeLeft Hours    1    hour      hours        timeLeft Minutes    0        timeLeft Minutes ToString              timeLeft Minutes    0        timeLeft Minutes    1    minute      minutes

[c#] How can I String.Format a TimeSpan object with a custom format in .NET?

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