remove seconds from timespan using c#

Question

I want to remove the seconds from timespan using c#

My code is here:

TimeSpan lateaftertime = new TimeSpan();
lateaftertime =  lateafter - Convert.ToDateTime(intime) ;

It returns the value 00:10:00

But i want the below output :00:10 only not seconds field :00.

Impel

You mean for printing? Or do you actually want to 'round' the timespan? – Archdiocese

yes i want to convert timespan 00:10:00 value to 00:10 only – Impel

Thank u so much i got the result. – Impel

i have an another doubt how can i check whether the date diff is positive or negative.. – Impel

@user1065029 If you found some other way remember to add it as answer – Buckingham

Accept the right answer and open a new question for "how can i check whether the date diff is positive or negative". – Compensate

Answer 1

Well you can simply do as

string.Format("{0}:{1}", ts.Hours,ts.Minutes) // it would display 2:5

EDIT

to get it properly formatted use

string.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}", ts.Hours,ts.Minutes) // it should display 02:05

Buckingham

That could be simplified to string.Format("{0:HH\\:mm}", ts); which would display "02:05". – Lummox

you should use TotalHours instead of Hours so that you don't get a nasty bug when ts is above 1 day. – Rambutan

@BerinLoritsch, I guess you mean hh because HH is not valid format specifier, according to learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/…. But then the shortcut can't be used when ts is more than 1 day, see my other comment. – Rambutan

@user829755, my bad. HH is valid for date/time objects, but not timespans. In date/time objects, capital specifies 24h clocks but timespans only support 24 hour format. – Lummox

Better use TotalHours instead of Hours, to prevent the loss of data when there are more then 24 hours – Tedder

Answer 2

Note that a TimeSpan does not have a format. It's stored in some internal representation¹ which does not resemble 00:10:00 at all.

The usual format hh:mm:ss is only produced when the TimeSpan is converted into a String, either explicitly or implicitly. Thus, the conversion is the point where you need to do something. The code example in your question is "too early" -- at this point, the TimeSpan is still of type TimeSpan.

To modify the conversion to String, you can either use String.Format, as suggested in V4Vendetta's answer, or you can use a custom format string for TimeSpan.ToString (available with .NET 4):

string formattedTimespan = ts.ToString("hh\\:mm");

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Note that this format string has the following drawbacks:

• If the TimeSpan spans more than 24 hours, it will only display the number of whole hours in the time interval that aren't part of a full day.

  Example: new TimeSpan(26, 0, 0).ToString("hh\\:mm") yields 02:00. This can be fixed by adding the d custom format specifier.

• Custom TimeSpan format specifiers don't support including a sign symbol, so you won't be able to differentiate between negative and positive time intervals.

  Example: new TimeSpan(-2, 0, 0).ToString("hh\\:mm") yields 02:00.

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¹ TimeSpan is just a thin wrapper around a 64-bit integer containing the number of ticks (10,000 ticks = 1 millisecond). Thus, 00:10:00 will be stored as the number 6,000,000,000.

Axon

This answer is inacurrate actually, i just tested with some TimeSpan retrieved from TimeZoneInfo. I does work if the value to format is positive, but it will not work for negatives values. Consider: TimeZoneInfo myTimeZone = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("Pacific Standard Time"); Console.WriteLine($"({myTimeZone.BaseUtcOffset.ToString()})"); Console.WriteLine(myTimeZone.BaseUtcOffset.ToString("hh\\:mm")); Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}", myTimeZone.BaseUtcOffset.Hours,myTimeZone.BaseUtcOffset.Minutes)); Will produce: (-08:00:00), 08:00 and -08:00. – Yesteryear

@GuillaumeZAHRA: You are absolutely right, thanks for the feedback. I have added this caveat (and one other) to my answer. – Axon

Answer 3

TimeSpan newTimeSpan = new TimeSpan(timeSpan.Hours, timeSpan.Minutes, 0);

Contractive

Answer 4

Since there can be more than hours and minutes in a timespan string representation, the most reliable code for removing just the seconds and nothing else would be something like this:

var text = TimeSpan.FromDays(100).ToString(); // "100.00:00:00"
var index = text.LastIndexOf(':');
text = text.Substring(0, index); // "100.00:00"

Superfuse