Convert a TimeSpan to a formatted string in C#

This post will discuss how to convert a TimeSpan object to a formatted string in C#.

A TimeSpan object represents a time interval unrelated to a particular date. It differs from the DateTime object, which represents both date and time values.

We can get a TimeSpan object by subtracting two DateTime objects in C#. The following example prints a TimeSpan object.

using System;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;

DateTime then = new DateTime(2017, 12, 25);

TimeSpan ts = now - then;

Console.WriteLine("The time difference is: {0}", ts.ToString());

}

Output: The time difference is: 743.20:24:39.5120760

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To do formatting of a TimeSpan object, use TimeSpan.ToString() method. Have a look at the Microsoft Documentation on TimeSpan custom format strings for more information.

using System;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;

DateTime then = DateTime.Now.AddHours(-2).AddMinutes(-30);

TimeSpan ts = now - then;

string format = @"dd\:hh\:mm\:ss\.fffffff";

Console.WriteLine("The time difference is: {0}", ts.ToString(format));

}

Output: The time difference is: 00:02:29:59.9991998

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The TimeSpan object exposes its members to return the total number of days, hours, minutes, seconds, and fractions of a second. The following example displays properties of a TimeSpan object that represents the difference between two dates.

using System;

public class Example

{

public static void Main()

{

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;

DateTime then = new DateTime(2017, 12, 25);

TimeSpan ts = now - then;

Console.WriteLine(@"{0} Days, {1} Hours, {2} Minutes, {3} Seconds

and {4} Milliseconds", ts.Days, ts.Hours,

ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds, ts.Milliseconds);

}

Output: 743 Days, 20 Hours, 26 Minutes, 15 Seconds and 84 Milliseconds

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That’s all about converting a TimeSpan to a formatted string in C#.

Convert a TimeSpan to a formatted string in C#

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