User Friendly Time Duration





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Show a TimeSpan by calendar periods
The largest value for a .NET
TimeSpan
is the duration in Days. This sample uses the Time Period Library for .NET[^] to represent a TimeSpan
in Months and Years.
An important aspect is the referring date of the TimeSpan
. Because Months contain varying number of days, the same duration produces - depending to the referring date - different target dates.
The next snippet redirects a TimeSpan
into two DateTime
and returns an user friendly duration using DateDiff.GetDescription
:// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
public string GetTimeSpanDescription( TimeSpan timeSpan, int precision = int.MaxValue )
{
return GetTimeSpanDescription( DateTime.Now, timeSpan, precision );
} // GetTimeSpanDescription
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
public string GetTimeSpanDescription( DateTime moment, TimeSpan timeSpan, int precision = int.MaxValue )
{
if ( timeSpan == TimeSpan.Zero )
{
return string.Empty;
}
bool isPositive = timeSpan > TimeSpan.Zero;
DateTime date1 = isPositive ? moment : moment.Subtract( timeSpan );
DateTime date2 = isPositive ? moment.Add( timeSpan ) : moment;
return new DateDiff( date1, date2 ).GetDescription( precision );
} // GetTimeSpanDescription
And now some samples:// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
public void UserFriendlyTimeSpanSample()
{
TimeSpan lastVisit = new TimeSpan( 400, 7, 25, 0 );
Console.WriteLine( "last visit before {0}",
GetTimeSpanDescription( lastVisit, 3 ) );
// > last visit before: 1 Year 1 Month 3 Days
// 60 days
TimeSpan reminderDuration = new TimeSpan( 60, 0, 0, 0, 0 );
Console.WriteLine( "reminder duration: {0} Days", reminderDuration.TotalDays );
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime moment1 = new DateTime( 2011, 4, 1 );
DateTime moment2 = new DateTime( 2011, 2, 1 );
DateTime moment3 = new DateTime( 2011, 3, 1 );
// past
Console.WriteLine( "last reminder (from now): {0}",
GetTimeSpanDescription( now, reminderDuration.Negate() ) );
// > last reminder (from now): -1 Months -30 Days
Console.WriteLine( "last reminder ({0:d}): {1}", moment1,
GetTimeSpanDescription( moment1, reminderDuration.Negate() ) );
// > last reminder (01.04.2011): -1 Months -29 Days
Console.WriteLine( "last reminder ({0:d}): {1}", moment2,
GetTimeSpanDescription( moment2, reminderDuration.Negate() ) );
// > last reminder (01.02.2011): -2 Months -1 Days
Console.WriteLine( "last reminder ({0:d}): {1}", moment3,
GetTimeSpanDescription( moment3, reminderDuration.Negate() ) );
// > last reminder (01.03.2011): -1 Months -29 Days
// future
Console.WriteLine( "next reminder (from now): {0}",
GetTimeSpanDescription( now, reminderDuration ) );
// > next reminder (from now): 1 Month 29 Days
Console.WriteLine( "next reminder {0:d}: {1}", moment1,
GetTimeSpanDescription( moment1, reminderDuration ) );
// > next reminder 01.04.2011: 1 Month 30 Days
Console.WriteLine( "next reminder {0:d}: {1}", moment2,
GetTimeSpanDescription( moment2, reminderDuration ) );
// > next reminder 01.02.2011: 2 Months 1 Day
Console.WriteLine( "next reminder {0:d}: {1}", moment3,
GetTimeSpanDescription( moment3, reminderDuration ) );
// > next reminder 01.03.2011: 1 Month 29 Days
} // UserFriendlyTimeSpanSample