How do I format a timespan to show me total hours?

Question

I want to save the user's hours worked in a database varchar column, but by default, the formatted value includes days if the number of hours is more than 24. I just want the total number of hours.

For example: if a user works 10:00:00 hours today, then 13:00:00 hours tomorrow, and 3:30:00 hours the day after tomorrow then the formatted total I want is 26:30:00. Instead, I am seeing 1.2:30:00.

How can I get the formatting I want?

Also, when I save the value 40:00:00 in the database manually, and try to read it into a TimeSpan later, I get a bug.

How can I save the hours in the database the way I want, and still be able to read it back into a TimeSpan later?

Aubigny

Are you asking about data in the database or the TimeSpan structure in the BCL? Your question is confusing. – Tenuto

As suggested here, it's best to store ticks in the database, rather than a formatted TimeSpan. Then you don't have this problem. – Pharsalus

Vote on the feature suggestion, then wait a decade for MS to get around to it: visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio-2015/… – Amara

Answer 1

Try TimeSpan.TotalHours

String timeStamp = "40:00:00";
var segments = timeStamp.Split(':');

TimeSpan t = new TimeSpan(0, Convert.ToInt32(segments[0]), 
               Convert.ToInt32(segments[1]), Convert.ToInt32(segments[2]));
string time = string.Format("{0}:{1}:{2}", 
           ((int) t.TotalHours), t.Minutes, t.Seconds);

Fabiolafabiolas

@Bala it get something so...(40.166666663) (it is a example) and how do i convert this 40:00:00 to timespan? i tried timespan x=timespan.Parse("40:00:00"); it get a bug – Aubigny

@Aubigny TimeSpan.FromHours(40.0); – Fabiolafabiolas

@Aubigny for the 40.166666 issue, you can use TimeSpan.TotalHours as integet and then TimeSpan.Minutes and TimeSpan.Seconds to format the string the way you want it. – Fabiolafabiolas

@angel, see my edit, you can use FromHours() to convert 40 hours – Fabiolafabiolas

@Bala how do i convert "40:00:00" to double then? because it is saved in database ... – Aubigny

@Aubigny you can use split on your input string and extract different segments as shown above. – Fabiolafabiolas

i plus it one hour more and i get 41.00:00:00 what is this value? after first point? – Aubigny

I don't understand. Can you rephrase your question? are you trying to add one hour to a timespan ? – Fabiolafabiolas

i want to be able than to have a time and plus with another time (one or two or more ) hours – Aubigny

You can try timeSpan.Add(anotherTimeSpan); – Fabiolafabiolas

and finally what is it going to return? i want it returns hours, minutes, seconds... is it going to return it? – Aubigny

Add() returns a new TimeSpan instance. you can do newTimeSpan.TotalHours to get hours, newTimeSpan.Minutes and newTimeSpan.Seconds to get minutes and seconds. – Fabiolafabiolas

almost! the problem now is totalHours get if it is 40:20:00 i got 40,3333 and with minutes and seconds i got finnaly 40,333333333:20:00 – Aubigny

(int) before than time.TotalHours+":+time.Minutes.ToString()+":"+time.Seconds all this as string and i printed it, do you believe i dont get bugs with this? – Aubigny

it should work but rather than concatenating string like that, use string.Format() which is more readable and efficient but your statement should work too. – Fabiolafabiolas

Noyce! (So much easier than built in crap) – Aimo

Answer 2

You could do something like:

TimeSpan time = ...;
string timeForDisplay = (int)time.TotalHours + time.ToString(@"\:mm\:ss");

Emergency

seriously? ... TimeSpan time = TimeSpan.FromHours(40) + TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30) – Emergency

Or even easier: TimeSpan time = new TimeSpan(40, 30, 0) msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bk8a3558.aspx – Emergency