[RESOLVED] [2005] Format output of Stopwatch

How can I format the output of the Stopwatch? I tried the following:

Code:

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sw.Elapsed.ToString("mm:ss")

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but VS complains. I would like to show just the minutes & seconds (to 3 decimal places) of the elapsed time. Thanks...

The timespan does not provide an overrideable ToString method, so you are going to have to manually build the string:

Code:

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MessageBox.Show(sw.Elapsed.Minutes.ToString("00") & ":" & sw.Elapsed.Seconds.ToString("00") & "." & sw.Elapsed.Milliseconds)

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vb.net Code:

Dim elapsed As TimeSpan = myStopwatch.Elapsed
 
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}.{2:000}", _
                              elapsed.TotalMinutes, _
                              elapsed.Seconds, _
                              elapsed.Milliseconds))

Notice that I used TotalMinutes and not Minutes. If you use Minutes then you'll never go past 59, so a value of an hour or more would show the incorrect time. Notice that I also forced the milliseconds to three figures, other wise 1 millisecond would be displaye as "00:00.1" instead of "00:00.001".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

Notice that I used TotalMinutes and not Minutes.

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Nice catch.

Thanks guys...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

Notice that I used TotalMinutes and not Minutes.

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OK, I found a problem with using TotalMinutes. It rounds to the nearest whole minute, so an elapsed time of 31 seconds gets displayed as 01:31, whereas using Minutes displays 00:31, as it should be. Here is a little snippet that will demonstrate this:

Code:

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Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

        Me.Show()
        Dim sw As New Stopwatch

        sw.Start()
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(31000) 'sleep for 31 seconds
        sw.Stop()

        MessageBox.Show(String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}.{2:000}", sw.Elapsed.Minutes, sw.Elapsed.Seconds, sw.Elapsed.Milliseconds) & ControlChars.CrLf & String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}.{2:000}", sw.Elapsed.TotalMinutes, sw.Elapsed.Seconds, sw.Elapsed.Milliseconds))

    End Sub

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Ah, sorry about that. I have used code like this before and I left a bit out. You do use TotalMinutes, not Minutes, but to account for the issue you mention you have to trucate the decimal part first. Change my code to this:

vb.net Code:

Dim elapsed As TimeSpan = myStopwatch.Elapsed
 
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}.{2:000}", _
                              Math.Floor(elapsed.TotalMinutes), _
                              elapsed.Seconds, _
                              elapsed.Milliseconds))

The Math.Floor method will remove the decimal part of the value, thus ensuring it will never be rounded up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

Ah, sorry about that. I have used code like this before and I left a bit out. You do use TotalMinutes, not Minutes, but to account for the issue you mention you have to trucate the decimal part first. Change my code to this:

vb.net Code:

Dim elapsed As TimeSpan = myStopwatch.Elapsed
 
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}.{2:000}", _
                              Math.Floor(elapsed.TotalMinutes), _
                              elapsed.Seconds, _
                              elapsed.Milliseconds))

The Math.Floor method will remove the decimal part of the value, thus ensuring it will never be rounded up.

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Can anyone explain please the quote code above works fine, but my code...

Code:

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        ts = myStopWatch.Elapsed
        elapsedTime = ts.ToString(String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:000}", Math.Floor(ts.TotalMinutes), ts.Seconds, ts.Milliseconds))
        Label8.Text = elapsedTime

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... returns an error - System.FormatException: 'Input string was not in a correct format.' - on running please?

EDIT:

Code:

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        ts = myStopWatch.Elapsed
        elapsedTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:000}", Math.Floor(ts.TotalMinutes), ts.Seconds, ts.Milliseconds)
        Label8.Text = elapsedTime

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I didn't need the ts.ToString on line 2. All good now!