Formatting a TimeSpan to look like a time zone offset

Question

How can I format a TimeSpan object to look like a time zone offset, like this:

+0700

or

-0600

I'm using GetUtcOffset to get an offset, and its working, but its returning a TimeSpan object.

Spikenard

Answer 1

If you're using .Net 4.0 or above, you can use the ToString method on timespan with the hh and mm specifier (not sure if it will display the + and - signs though):

TimeSpan span = new TimeSpan(7, 0, 0);
Console.WriteLine(span.ToString("hhmm"));

If not, you can just format the Hours and Minutes properties along with some conditional formatting to always display the + and - signs:

TimeSpan span = new TimeSpan(7, 0, 0);
Console.WriteLine("{0:+00;-00}{1:00}", span.Hours, span.Minutes);

Reference for TimeSpan format strings: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/ee372287.aspx

Reference for numeric format strings and conditional formatting of them: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0c899ak8.aspx

Boutte

But if TimeSpan is negative, it will show result like -1-30. Should use Math.Abs(span.Minutes). – Busyness

Answer 2

Try something like:

var timespan = new TimeSpan(-5,0,0); // EST
var offset = String.Format("{0}{1:00}{2:00}",(timespan.Hours >= 0 ? "+" : String.Empty),timespan.Hours,timespan.Minutes);

I add the + when the number is non-negative (for negative numbers a - should be output).

Blanding

This answer does not address the timezone offset question at all. – Jerad

@WadeBaird It's been 11 years, but how does it not? – Blanding

Answer 3

This code:

var timeSpan = new TimeSpan(2, 30, 0);
Console.WriteLine(new DateTimeOffset(2000, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, timeSpan).ToString("zzz"));
Console.WriteLine(new DateTimeOffset(2000, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, -timeSpan).ToString("zzz"));

outputs:

+02:30
-02:30

Pleistocene

This answer does not address the timezone offset question at all. – Jerad

The question was "How can I format a TimeSpan object to look like a time zone offset, like this: +0700". My answer shows how to format TimeSpan(2,30,0) to "+02:30" and also how to "-02:30". Why do you think this does not address the question? – Pleistocene

Answer 4

I think you could use this:

String.Format("{0:zzz}", ts);

Benjy

that contains a : between hours and minutes, which could be replaced to fit requirement. – Geosynclinal

This outputs both colons and seconds which you'd have to then remove. – Blanding

This code gives runtime error: "System.FormatException: 'Input string was not in a correct format.' – Pleistocene