TimeSpan Structure

You can instantiate a TimeSpan value in a number of ways:

• By calling its implicit default constructor. This creates an object whose value is TimeSpan.Zero, as the following example shows.

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  TimeSpan interval = new TimeSpan();
  Console.WriteLine(interval.Equals(TimeSpan.Zero));    // Displays "True".
  
  
  

• By calling one of its explicit constructors. The following example initializes a TimeSpan value to a specified number of hours, minutes, and seconds.

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  TimeSpan interval = new TimeSpan(2, 14, 18);
  Console.WriteLine(interval.ToString());              // Displays "02:14:18".
  
  
  

• By calling a method or performing an operation that returns a TimeSpan value. For example, you can instantiate a TimeSpan value that represents the interval between two date and time values, as the following example shows.

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  DateTime departure = new DateTime(2010, 6, 12, 18, 32, 0);
  DateTime arrival = new DateTime(2010, 6, 13, 22, 47, 0);
  TimeSpan travelTime = arrival - departure;  
  Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1} = {2}", arrival, departure, travelTime);      
  // The example displays the following output:
  //       6/13/2010 10:47:00 PM - 6/12/2010 6:32:00 PM = 1.04:15:00
  
  
  

  You can also initialize a TimeSpan object to a zero time value in this way, as the following example shows.

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  using System;
  
  public class Example
  {
     static Random rnd = new Random();
  
     public static void Main()
     {
        TimeSpan timeSpent = TimeSpan.Zero;
  
        timeSpent += GetTimeBeforeLunch();
        timeSpent += GetTimeAfterLunch();
  
        Console.WriteLine("Total time: {0}", timeSpent);
     }
  
     private static TimeSpan GetTimeBeforeLunch()
     {
        return new TimeSpan(rnd.Next(3, 6), 0, 0);
     }
  
     private static TimeSpan GetTimeAfterLunch()
     {
        return new TimeSpan(rnd.Next(3, 6), 0, 0);
     }
  }
  // The example displays output like the following:
  //        Total time: 08:00:00
  
  
  

  TimeSpan values are returned by arithmetic operators and methods of the DateTime, DateTimeOffset, and TimeSpan structures.

• By parsing the string representation of a TimeSpan value. You can use the Parse and TryParse methods to convert strings that contain time intervals to TimeSpan values. The following example uses the Parse method to convert an array of strings to TimeSpan values.

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  string[] values = { "12", "31.", "5.8:32:16", "12:12:15.95", ".12"};
  foreach (string value in values)
  {
     try {
        TimeSpan ts = TimeSpan.Parse(value);
        Console.WriteLine("'{0}' --> {1}", value, ts);
     }
     catch (FormatException) {
        Console.WriteLine("Unable to parse '{0}'", value);
     }
     catch (OverflowException) {
        Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is outside the range of a TimeSpan.", value);
     }   
  }
  // The example displays the following output:
  //       '12' --> 12.00:00:00
  //       Unable to parse '31.'
  //       '5.8:32:16' --> 5.08:32:16
  //       '12:12:15.95' --> 12:12:15.9500000
  //       Unable to parse '.12'  
  
  
  

  In addition, you can define the precise format of the input string to be parsed and converted to a TimeSpan value by calling the ParseExact or TryParseExact method.

You can add and subtract time durations either by using the Addition and Subtraction operators, or by calling the Add and Subtract methods. You can also compare two time durations by calling the Compare, CompareTo, and Equals methods. The TimeSpan class also includes the Duration and Negate methods, which convert time intervals to positive and negative values,

The range of TimeSpan values is MinValue to MaxValue.

A TimeSpan value can be represented as [-]d.hh:mm:ss.ff, where the optional minus sign indicates a negative time interval, the d component is days, hh is hours as measured on a 24-hour clock, mm is minutes, ss is seconds, and ff is fractions of a second. That is, a time interval consists of a positive or negative number of days without a time of day, or a number of days with a time of day, or only a time of day.

Beginning with the .NET Framework version 4, the TimeSpan structure supports culture-sensitive formatting through the overloads of its ToString method, which converts a TimeSpan value to its string representation. The default TimeSpan.ToString() method returns a time interval by using an invariant format that is identical to its return value in previous versions of the .NET Framework. The TimeSpan.ToString(String) overload lets you specify a format string that defines the string representation of the time interval. The TimeSpan.ToString(String, IFormatProvider) overload lets you specify a format string and the culture whose formatting conventions are used to create the string representation of the time interval. TimeSpan supports both standard and custom format strings. (For more information, see Standard TimeSpan Format Strings and Custom TimeSpan Format Strings.) However, only standard format strings are culture-sensitive.

In some cases, code that successfully formats TimeSpan values in .NET Framework 3.5 and earlier versions fails in .NET Framework 4. This is most common in code that calls a composite formatting method to format a TimeSpan value with a format string. The following example successfully formats a TimeSpan value in .NET Framework 3.5 and earlier versions, but throws an exception in .NET Framework 4 and later versions. Note that it attempts to format a TimeSpan value by using an unsupported format specifier, which is ignored in .NET Framework 3.5 and earlier versions.

TimeSpan interval = new TimeSpan(12, 30, 45);
string output;
try {
   output = String.Format("{0:r}", interval);
}
catch (FormatException) {
   output = "Invalid Format";
}
Console.WriteLine(output);
// Output from .NET Framework 3.5 and earlier versions:
//       12:30:45
// Output from .NET Framework 4:
//       Invalid Format

If you cannot modify the code, you can restore the legacy formatting of TimeSpan values in one of the following ways:

• By creating a configuration file that contains the <TimeSpan_LegacyFormatMode> element. Setting this element's enabled attribute to true restores legacy TimeSpan formatting on a per-application basis.

• By setting the "NetFx40_TimeSpanLegacyFormatMode" compatibility switch when you create an application domain. This enables legacy TimeSpan formatting on a per-application-domain basis. The following example creates an application domain that uses legacy TimeSpan formatting.

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  using System;
  
  public class Example
  {
     public static void Main()
     {
        AppDomainSetup appSetup = new AppDomainSetup();
        appSetup.SetCompatibilitySwitches( new string[] { "NetFx40_TimeSpanLegacyFormatMode" } );
        AppDomain legacyDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("legacyDomain", 
                                                        null, appSetup);
        legacyDomain.ExecuteAssembly("ShowTimeSpan.exe");
     }
  }
  
  
  

  When the following code executes in the new application domain, it reverts to legacy TimeSpan formatting behavior.

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  using System;
  
  public class Example
  {
     public static void Main()
     {
        TimeSpan interval = DateTime.Now - DateTime.Now.Date;
        string msg = String.Format("Elapsed Time Today: {0:d} hours.",
                                   interval);
        Console.WriteLine(msg);
     }
  }
  // The example displays the following output:
  //       Elapsed Time Today: 01:40:52.2524662 hours.