Days, hours, minutes, seconds between two dates

Question

I have two dates, one less than the other. I want to create a string such as this one

\"0 days, 0 hours, 23 minutes, 18 seconds\"

representing the differenc

Answer 1

Use a TimeSpan

DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;

DateTime endTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds( 75 );

TimeSpan span = endTime.Subtract ( startTime );
Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (seconds): " + span.Seconds );
Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (minutes): " + span.Minutes );
Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (hours): " + span.Hours );
Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (days): " + span.Days );

String yourString = string.Format("{0} days, {1} hours, {2} minues, {3} seconds",
    span.Days, span.Hours, span.Minutes, span.Seconds);

Answer 2

Use the TimeSpan class, which you'll get when you subtract the dates.

You can format the output using standard or custom format strings.

"0 days, 0 hours, 23 minutes, 18 seconds"

can be had with something like:

TimeSpan ts = DateTime.Now - DateTime.Today;
Console.WriteLine(
   string.Format("{0:%d} days, {0:%h} hours, {0:%m} minutes, {0:%s} seconds", ts)
);

IMO, it's cleaner and easier to use string.Format instead of having to escape the words in your format string (which you'd need if you just used .ToString) or building it up manually.

Answer 3

TimeSpan is the object you need:

TimeSpan span = (DateTime.Now - DateTime.Now);

String.Format("{0} days, {1} hours, {2} minutes, {3} seconds", 
    span.Days, span.Hours, span.Minutes, span.Seconds);