How to format user input into time - c#

I am writing a simple class in C# that all it does is print three float variables to a DOS console (hour, minutes, seconds). The output is something like this: Hour = 3, Minutes = 15, Seconds = 0. But I want to know how would I go about in formatting it to show 3:15:00 rather than Hour = 3, Minutes = 15, Seconds = 0
This is the method I created that prints out the info:
/// <summary>
/// Prints the time to the console
/// </summary>
public void PrintTime()
{
Console.WriteLine(pHour.ToString() + ":" + pMinutes.ToString() + ":" + Seconds.ToString());
}
Can someone help me figure out how to format this? I went online and found out about DateTime but it requires the date as well and I don't need to add that for this homework. Many thanks in advance!

You can use the string format that Console.WriteLine provides:
Console.WriteLine("{0}:{1:00}:{2:00}", pHour, pMinutes, Seconds);

A little bit out of context. One more method is to use DateTime class to output the string
DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy MM dd HH:mm:ss.fff tt", [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo("en-US"));
The advantage of this method is easy insertion of separators in Date. Disadvantage is you cant insert your normal text inside the format string.

You could use a DateTime object to represent your Time and just disregard the Date part. Or you could use a TimeSpan object to accomplish a similar feat.
Or, just disregard both entirely and print out your input values as is:
int hours = 5;
int minutes = 55;
int seconds = 7;
DateTime dt = new DateTime(2014, 1, 1, hours, minutes, seconds);
TimeSpan ts = new TimeSpan(hours, minutes, seconds);
Console.WriteLine("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}", dt.Hour, dt.Minute, dt.Second);
Console.WriteLine("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}", ts.Hours, ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds); // This is actually not needed for using a TimeSpan, see next line.
Console.WriteLine(ts);
Console.WriteLine("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}", hours, minutes, seconds);
In action
https://dotnetfiddle.net/6lUwnR
Note that weird stuff will happen if you pass in out of range values in some cases, so make sure to validate your input! :)

Related

Problem with time intervals with given start time and end time c#

I am trying to develop a simple app for my upskill for c#, however I am stuck and new to the functionality of time with c#,
what I need:
I have a 3 text boxes that will contain start time, end time and time interval.
say user entered 7:00 AM , 12:00 PM , and 60 minutes it will store it inside a datatable and add it inside a listbox.
7:00 AM
8:00 AM
9:00 AM
10:00 AM
11:00 AM
12:00 AM
current approach:
I think I need to use the DateTime.AddMinutes(interval) but how am I going to arrive to the logic of it will stop if it reaches the end time? using the DateTime method? I am really confused on what to use, I saw TimeRange, TimeSpan etc.
You can use TimeSpan and DateTime together (to calculate and print respectively)
TimeSpan start = DateTime.Parse("7:00 AM").TimeOfDay;
TimeSpan end = DateTime.Parse("12:00 PM").TimeOfDay;
TimeSpan interval = new TimeSpan(0, 60, 0);
// If Start is bigger than end, Add a day to the end.
if (start > end)
end = end.Add(new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0, 0));
while (true)
{
Console.WriteLine((new DateTime() + start).ToString("hh:mm tt"));
start = start.Add(interval);
if (start > end)
break;
}
Output looks like this,
07:00 AM
08:00 AM
09:00 AM
10:00 AM
11:00 AM
12:00 PM
MS Documentation on TimeSpan
You can use TimeSpan with boolean logical operator to test if the currentTime is less than your endTime.
Below is example code.
TimeSpan startTime;
int interval;
TimeSpan tInterval = new TimeSpan(interval, 0, 0);
TimeSpan endTime;
TimeSpan currentTime = startTime;
while( (currentTime = startTime + tInterval) <= endTime)
{
// add currentTime to list box
}
This should take care of the issue with the End Times being "earlier" than the Start Time:
private static void TestTimeSpan()
{
int minutes = 60;
var interval = new TimeSpan(0,minutes,0);
TimeSpan start = DateTime.Parse("7:00 PM").TimeOfDay;
TimeSpan end = DateTime.Parse("1:00 AM").TimeOfDay;
//End of input data--start of solution
var diffSpan = end - start;
var diffMinutes = diffSpan.TotalMinutes > 0 ? diffSpan.TotalMinutes : diffSpan.TotalMinutes + (60 * 24);
var myTimeList = new List<TimeSpan>();
for(int i = 0; i < diffMinutes + minutes; i += minutes)
{
myTimeList.Add(start);
start = start.Add(interval);
}
myTimeList.ForEach(x => Console.WriteLine((new DateTime() + x).ToString("hh:mm tt")));
}
EDIT
Creating a sequence of Time values based in two input times and an interval is straight forward until the "start time" is earlier than the "end time", because just checking to see if the "end time" is greater than the start time fails your algorithm immediately.
This code utilizes the fact that there are only 24 hours in the day. Since the interval value is given in minutes, we can use that to section those minutes into "steps" of time. This code proceeds to step through each interval in time and capture the time at that step and save that in a List of TimeSpan (the captured value could easily be of type string--formatted as desired).
The trick here is when the "end time" is earlier than the "start time" we get a negative TimeSpan which is then used to calculate the steps to the "end time" on the next day. This is where the (60 * 24) [60 minutes x 24 hrs] part comes in to create the correct "diffMinutes" using a ternary operator.
After that the code simple iterates over the List "myTimeList" to write the formatted TimeSpan to the console. However, this 'List' is just a portable collection that can be sent anywhere in you code to do anything needed.
There are lots of other solutions, this one just seems straightforward, to me.

Formatting TimeSpan to hours, minutes and seconds

i am trying to find a solution for my issue, i am using TimeSpan to get the total amount of time a window was open by subtracting two Datetime objects. it is working but i am getting milliseconds and i only need hours, minutes and seconds to display. this is the code i am working with _timeStart is initialize outside the method but its just gets the time the window opened.
_timeStop = DateTime.Now;
TimeSpan timeSpent = _timeStop.Subtract(_timeStart);
string.Format($"{timeSpent:hh\\:mm\\:ss}");
_logger.Debug(timeSpent);
To display just hours/minutes/seconds use this format string:
var timeSpent = new TimeSpan(1, 12, 23, 62);
Console.WriteLine(timeSpent.ToString(#"hh\:mm\:ss"));
You can find more info here
var str = string.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}", timeSpent.Hours, timeSpent.Minutes, timeSpent.Seconds);
_logger.Debug(str);
should do the trick

C# TimeSpan.Milliseconds formated to 2 digits

I have a timer that I want to show minutes:seconds:hundreds of seconds.
Since C# timespan doesn't have a method to get hundreds but only milliseconds, I need to somehow format this.
TimeSpan ts = stopWatch.Elapsed;
currentTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}", ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds, Math.Round(Convert.ToDecimal(ts.Milliseconds),2));
ClockTextBlock.Text = currentTime;
I've tried with Math.Round and nothing happened. The result is still anywhere from 1-3 digit, like this:
01:12:7
01:12:77
01:12:777
I want format to always be like
01:12:07
01:12:77
You need:
String.Format(#"Time : {0:mm\:ss\.ff}", ts)
Where "ts" is your TimeSpan object. You can also always extend this to include hours etc. The fff stuff is the number of significant digits of the second fractions
You can use a custom TimeSpan format string for that (here we're only displaying the first two digits of the milliseconds with ff, which represent the hundredths):
ClockTextBlock.Text = ts.ToString("mm\\:ss\\:ff");
You could set a DateTime type timezone and plus with Timespan span.
You would get a datetime and format it!
DateTime timezone = new DateTime(1, 1, 1);
TimeSpan span = stopWatch.Elapsed;
ClockTextBlock.Text=(timezone + span).ToString("mm:ss:ff");
Just put the format in toString and it simply will show you the desired format :)
Stopwatch s2 = new Stopwatch();
s2.Start();
Console.WriteLine(s2.Elapsed.ToString(#"hh\:mm\:ss"));
Since a millisecond is 1/1000 of a second, all you need to do is divide the milliseconds by 10 to get 100's of a second. If you are concerned about rounding, then just do it manually before the division.
int hundredths = (int)Math.Round((double)ts.Milliseconds / 10);
currentTime = String.Format("{0}:{1}:{2}", ts.Minutes.ToString(D2), ts.Seconds.ToString(D2), hundredths.ToString(D2);
ClockTextBlock.Text = currentTime;

Convert formatted date string to DateTime(int,int,int,int,int,int) to pass into a function

I am comparing the time now to a time stored somewhere in a database. The time stored in the database is in the format of "yyyyMMddHHmmss". For example, the database may return 201106203354 for a stored time value. I am then using a function to compare the time now to the time read in from the database.
What I am doing now:
Create 6 int variables
Take the sub-string from the formatted date string and convert the sub-string to an int32.
Pass the 6 int variables to the function.
What I would like to do:
Rather than splitting up the formatted date-time string, and seperately creating and assigning six variables to pass to the function, I would like to know if there is some way to simply convert the formatted date-time string into DateTime.
Please see my code as it will help to explain what I clearly cannot ...
Pass time now along with time read from database:
Private void passTime()
{
string timeStamp;
int year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds;
DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
timeStamp = dt.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss");
year = Convert.ToInt32(timeStamp.Substring(0, 4));
month = Convert.ToInt32(timeStamp.Substring(4, 2));
day = Convert.ToInt32(timeStamp.Substring(6, 2));
hour = Convert.ToInt32(timeStamp.Substring(8, 2));
minutes = Convert.ToInt32(timeStamp.Substring(10, 2));
seconds = Convert.ToInt32(timeStamp.Substring(12, 2));
MessageBox.Show(GetDifferenceDate(
new DateTime(year,month,day,hour,minutes,seconds),
// Example time from database
new DateTime(2011, 08, 11, 11, 40, 26)));
}
static string GetDifferenceDate(DateTime date1, DateTime date2)
{
if (DateTime.Compare(date1, date2) >= 0)
{
TimeSpan ts = date1.Subtract(date2);
return string.Format("{0} days",
ts.Days);
}
else
return "Not valid";
}
So, quite simply, I would like to compare two dates that are both in the format of "yyyyMMddHHmmss", or if this is not possible, I would like to convert the previous Date string into a DateTime.
I'm sure I left something out here, I will go back and read it again but please feel free to ask me anything that I left unclear.
Thank you,
Evan
You're looking for ParseExact:
DateTime.ParseExact(timeStamp, "yyyyMMddHHmmss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)

Parsing times above 24 hours in C#

Suppose a time stamp (just time or date and time) where the time can roll over to the next day:
00:00:00 <- midnight
01:00:00 <- 1 AM
23:00:00 <- 11 PM
24:00:00 <- midnight, day + 1
25:00:00 <- 1 AM, day + 1
What would be a way to parse it easily into a C# DateTime that would perform the carry-over to the next day? In other words, "01:00:00" would become "0001-01-01 01:00:00" and "25:00:00" would become "0001-01-02 01:00:00".
EDIT:
I should mention that this fails miserably (i.e FormatException):
DateTime.ParseExact("0001-01-01 25:00:00", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Since you're trying to represent a period of time from an arbitrary point, rather than as a specific date, perhaps you would be better off using the System.TimeSpan class? This allows you to set values of more than 24 hours in the constructor, and can be used with DateTime objects like this:
System.TimeSpan timestamp = new System.TimeSpan(25, 0, 0);
System.DateTime parsedDateTime = new DateTime(0, 0, 0);
parsedDateTime = parsedDateTime.Add(timestamp);
Console.WriteLine(parsedDateTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")); //Output as "0001-01-02 01:00:00"
NOTE: Code is untested.
EDIT: In terms of parsing the strings, I can't think of any basic .NET objects that parse strings with values greater than 23 for the hour (since 25 is an invalid hour of the day), but assuming that the format is consistent, you could create a very simple string parsing routine (or even a regular expression) to read the values individually, and load the constructor manually.
If you have an existing DateTime value you can add to, you can always use a TimeSpan:
string dt = "25:00:00";
int hours = int.Parse(dt.Split(':')[0]);
TimeSpan ts = TimeSpan.FromHours(hours);
TimeSpan.Parse() doesn't work directly in this case because it complains (fair enough!) about the 25 in the hour notation.
If you want to code it out... this should be a starting point:
string dateString = "0001-01-01 25:00:00";
string[] parts = dateString.Split(' '); //now have '0001-01-01' and '25:00:00'
string datePart = parts[0]; // '0001-01-01'
string[] timeParts = parts[1].Split(':'); //now have '25', '00', and '00
DateTime initialDate = DateTime.ParseExact(datePart, "yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);//use the date as a starting point
//use the add methods to get your desired datetime
int hours = int.Parse(timeParts[0]);
int minutes = int.Parse(timeParts[1]);
int seconds = int.Parse(timeParts[2]);
DateTime resultDate = initialDate.AddHours(hours)
.AddMinutes(minutes)
.AddSeconds(seconds);
Of course, it makes assumptions that the input is formatted properly and is parsable, etc..
In addition, you could definitely use timespan instead of the individual add methods for hour, minute, second as some other answers are..
In case nobody points out an out-of-the-box answer, here is a neat ActionScript class I wrote to parse time inputs (human input)...
https://github.com/appcove/AppStruct/blob/master/Flex/AppStruct/src/AppStruct/TimeInput.as
It would be very simple to port this to C#, and you could tweak the 24 hour logic to result in #days, #hours, #minutes.
Good luck!
You are specifying an invalid date. So not only can you not parse it, you cannot store it!
How about a nice TimeSpan object instead? (It also has a Parse() method.)
Alternatively, use a sscanf()-type function like the one at http://www.blackbeltcoder.com/Articles/strings/a-sscanf-replacement-for-net to extract each number separate. (Best if you have no control over the string format being read.)

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