hello,

ive read the MSDN docs on using the TimeSpace.Pars() method to format
timespans, however i found their examples unclear.

currently i am doing this:

	Dim startTime As DateTime = DateTime.Now
	...
	Dim endTime As DateTime = DateTime.Now
	Dim elapsedTime As TimeSpan = endTime.Subtract(startTime)

	writer.WriteLine("Time difference: {0} hours, {1} minutes, {2}
seconds.", elapsedTime.Hours, elapsedTime.Minutes,
elapsedTime.Seconds)

....but i get the impression there is a much simpler string formatter
technique. ive tried this, to no effect:

	writer.WriteLine("Time difference: {0:hh:mm:ss}", elapsedTime)


anybody know the magic?

thanks!
sm

SpaceMarine wrote:

> [...]
> ....but i get the impression there is a much simpler string formatter
> technique. ive tried this, to no effect:
> 
> 	writer.WriteLine("Time difference: {0:hh:mm:ss}", elapsedTime)
> 
> 
> anybody know the magic?


There's no magic.  The TimeSpan class has no formatting options, so you 
need to break it apart as in the example you found, if you are going to 
use the TimeSpan directly.

One alternative is to convert the TimeSpan back to a DateTime, which of 
course does have formatting options like you're trying to use:

     writer.WriteLine("Time difference: {0:hh:mm:ss}",
         new DateTime() + elapsedTime);

Sort of hacky, but it works.

Pete

On Aug 15, 1:02 pm, Peter Duniho  wrote:

> SpaceMarine wrote:
> > [...]
> > ....but i get the impression there is a much simpler string formatter
> > technique. ive tried this, to no effect:
>
> >    writer.WriteLine("Time difference: {0:hh:mm:ss}", elapsedTime)
>
> > anybody know the magic?
>
> There's no magic.  The TimeSpan class has no formatting options


bummer. i had thought from all that jibjab on msdn's TimeSpan.Parse()
that there would be something like it.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.timespan.parse(vs.71).aspx


thanks
sm

SpaceMarine wrote:

>> There's no magic.  The TimeSpan class has no formatting options
> 
> bummer. i had thought from all that jibjab on msdn's TimeSpan.Parse()
> that there would be something like it.


Yes.  You'd think that you would be able to specify string formatting 
for converting a TimeSpan to a string that's similar to the description 
they offer for parsing from a string.

But as far as I know, they don't.  And I have looked pretty thoroughly. 
  The TimeSpan.ToString() method doesn't even offer an overload with a 
formatting string parameter.

Pete