Extensions: User friendly version of TimeSpan #1

In my last post of this series, I told about basics of using and creation of extension methods in .NET (C#). I also told about a extension which delays a method for given time. In you have not seen it yet, please see it here.

So, you have now the power of creating one of the really useful things in .NET. In this post I'll show a simple extension method which is very helpful if you work on websites / apps where you've to display relative time to users. OK, by relative time I mean, time format like x minutes, y seconds ago. This is very user friendly as displaying a time format like Oct 28, 2012 16:45 is not very easy to get if currently time is Oct 28, 2012 16:50. It would be easier if it was like this 5 minutes ago. So, I hope you get what I wanted to tell.

To solve this problem, I made an extension method after reviewing lot of sites. This method converts a TimeSpan into a user friendly string either shorthand or not. In shorthand mode, min = minute(s), s = second(s), h = hour(s), d = day(s), yr = year(s).

///<summary> 
///Formats the time to user safe string. 
///</summary> 
///<param name="ts">The ts.</param> 
///<param name="shorthand">if set to <c>true</c>[shorthand].</param> 
///<returns>...</returns> 
public static string ToFriendlyString1(this TimeSpan ts, bool shorthand) 
{ 
    if(ts == TimeSpan.MaxValue || ts == TimeSpan.MinValue) return"Sometime";
    StringBuilder sb = newStringBuilder();
    
    if(!shorthand) 
    { 
        if((int)ts.Days == 365.0 || (int)ts.Days == 366.0) sb.Append("1 year, ");
        else if(ts.Days > 365.0) sb.Append((int)(ts.Days / 365.0) + " years, ");
        else if(ts.Days == 1.0) sb.Append("1 day, "); 
        else if(ts.Days > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Days + " days, ");
        if(ts.Hours == 1.0) sb.Append("1 hour, "); 
        else if(ts.Hours > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Hours + " hours, ");
        if(ts.Minutes == 1.0) sb.Append("1 minute, "); 
        else if(ts.Minutes > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Minutes + " minutes, ");
        if(ts.Seconds == 1.0) sb.Append("1 second, "); 
        else if(ts.Seconds > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Seconds + " seconds, "); 
    } 
    else 
    { 
        if((int)ts.Days == 365.0 || (int)ts.Days == 366.0) sb.Append("1yr, "); 
        else if(ts.Days > 365.0) sb.Append((int)(ts.Days / 365.0) + "yr, "); 
        else if(ts.Days == 1.0) sb.Append("1d, "); 
        else if(ts.Days > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Days + "d, ");
        if(ts.Hours == 1.0) sb.Append("1h, "); 
        else if(ts.Hours > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Hours + "h, ");
        if(ts.Minutes == 1.0) sb.Append("1min, "); 
        else if(ts.Minutes > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Minutes + "min, ");
        if(ts.Seconds == 1.0) sb.Append("1s, "); 
        else if(ts.Seconds > 1.0) sb.Append((int)ts.Seconds + "s, "); 
    }
    sb.Remove(sb.Length -2, 2);
    return sb.ToString(); 
}

Usage

(DateTime.Now - DateTime.Now.AddHours(-3.5)).ToFriendlyString1(false) + " ago"
// 3 hours, 29 minutes, 59 seconds ago

 "After " + TimeSpan.FromDays(365 * 2.56897).ToFriendlyString1(false)
// After 2 years, 16 hours, 10 minutes, 37 seconds