Remove leading zeros from time to show elapsed time

Question

I need to show the simplest version of the elapsed time interval. Is there any finished thing for this?

Examples:

HH:mm:ss 10:43:27 > 10h43m27s 00:04:12 > 4m12s 00:00:07 > 7s 

I think I need a format provider in the past.

Answer 1

A simple extension method should suffice:

 static class Extensions { public static string ToShortForm(this TimeSpan t) { string shortForm = ""; if (t.Hours > 0) { shortForm += string.Format("{0}h", t.Hours.ToString()); } if (t.Minutes > 0) { shortForm += string.Format("{0}m", t.Minutes.ToString()); } if (t.Seconds > 0) { shortForm += string.Format("{0}s", t.Seconds.ToString()); } return shortForm; } } 

Test it with:

 TimeSpan tsTest = new TimeSpan(10, 43, 27); string output = tsTest.ToShortForm(); tsTest = new TimeSpan(0, 4, 12); output = tsTest.ToShortForm(); tsTest = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 7); output = tsTest.ToShortForm(); 

Answer 2

Here's a single line (almost) if you have a TimeSpan objectL

 (new TimeSpan(0, 0, 30, 21, 3)) .ToString(@"d\d\ hh\hmm\mss\s") .TrimStart(' ','d','h','m','s','0'); 

Code output

 30m21s 

The first line just makes the TimeSpan object for example, .ToString formats it in the requested format, and then .TrimStart removes leading characters that you don't need.

Answer 3

I don't think this can be done in a simple way by creating a custom format serializer - I would just make my own:

 TimeSpan delta = TimeSpan.Parse("09:03:07"); string displayTime = string.Empty; if (delta.Hours > 0) displayTime += delta.Hours.ToString() + "h"; if (delta.Minutes > 0) displayTime += delta.Minutes.ToString() + "m"; if (delta.Seconds > 0) displayTime += delta.Seconds.ToString() + "s"; 

Please note that this will only work for positive time frames.

Answer 4

You can use string.Format to achieve this, along with some conditional statements:

 public static string GetSimplestTimeSpan(TimeSpan timeSpan) { var result = string.Empty; if (timeSpan.Days > 0) { result += string.Format( @"{0:ddd\d}", timeSpan).TrimStart('0'); } if (timeSpan.Hours > 0) { result += string.Format( @"{0:hh\h}", timeSpan).TrimStart('0'); } if (timeSpan.Minutes > 0) { result += string.Format( @"{0:mm\m}", timeSpan).TrimStart('0'); } if (timeSpan.Seconds > 0) { result += string.Format( @"{0:ss\s}", timeSpan).TrimStart('0'); } return result; } 

Although, after seeing the answer from BrokenGlass, I am tempted to say that using Format here is generally not too great. However, this allows you to customize the output of each element of the elapsed time, if required.

Answer 5

Here is my trick:

  Dim TimeTaken As String = TimeSpan.ToString("g") ' Supply TimeSpan If TimeTaken.Contains("0:00") Then TimeTaken = TimeTaken.Remove(0, 3) ElseIf TimeTaken.Contains("0:0") Then TimeTaken = TimeTaken.Remove(0, 2) End If