How can I String.Format a TimeSpan object with a custom format in .NET?

Question

What is the recommended way of formatting TimeSpan objects into a string with a custom format?

Answer 1

This is the approach I used my self with conditional formatting. and I post it here because I think this is clean way.

$"{time.Days:#0:;;\\}{time.Hours:#0:;;\\}{time.Minutes:00:}{time.Seconds:00}"

example of outputs:

00:00 (minimum)

1:43:04 (when we have hours)

15:03:01 (when hours are more than 1 digit)

2:4:22:04 (when we have days.)

The formatting is easy. time.Days:#0:;;\\ the format before ;; is for when value is positive. negative values are ignored. and for zero values we have;;\\ in order to hide it in formatted string. note that the escaped backslash is necessary otherwise it will not format correctly.