Convert time in string format into time format

Question

I have time "00.05.415" (mm:ss.000) which is in string format.

I want to convert it to a TIME format where I can add multiple times such as "00.05.415"+"00.06.415"+"00.07.415" to get one single added time.

What language are you using? We'll definitely need to know that before moving forward. — Zeratas
– Zeratas, Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 17:57
Is it an elapsed time value, such as you might measure in real life using a stopwatch? Or is it a time of day value, such as you might observe in real life on a clock? Those are two very different things. (Note, the dup Avitus points at is for the latter.) — Matt Johnson-Pint
– Matt Johnson-Pint, Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 18:03
@MattJohnson it's an elapsed time. I'm getting these values from an XML node, thus in the string format. Is there anyway to convert string to time? — Anmol Jaising
– Anmol Jaising, Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 18:05
@Avitus, it's not a duplicate because you cannot easily parse that string into TimeSpan or DateTime. — Andrii Litvinov
– Andrii Litvinov, Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 18:12

Tim · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-28 18:32:00Z

3

You'll want to use TimeSpan.ParseExact so you can specify the format that the time is in and then you can add the time spans together:

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    TimeSpan span1 = Convert("00.05.415");
    TimeSpan span2 = Convert("00.07.415");

    TimeSpan result = span1 + span2;

    Console.WriteLine(result);

    Console.ReadKey();
}

public static TimeSpan Convert(string span)
{
    return TimeSpan.ParseExact(span, @"mm\.ss\.fff", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee372287(v=vs.110).aspx

edited Apr 28, 2017 at 18:32

answered Apr 28, 2017 at 18:11

Tim

8976 silver badges13 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

Matt Johnson-Pint Over a year ago

Well, if you aren't going to evaluate the result of the conversion, use ParseExact, not TryParseExact.

Matt Johnson-Pint Over a year ago

Fixed your invocation for you. :) But the addition is correct and gives the correct value.

Anmol Jaising Over a year ago

@MattJohnson How would you take an average of the timespan then?

Tim Over a year ago

@AnmolJaising TimeSpan avg = new TimeSpan(result.Ticks / numOfTimes);

Anmol Jaising Over a year ago

@Tim: Thanks for all your help :D

|

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:31:22Z

0

You'd want to take a look at the link that Avitus has and has the one here.

I'll have to ask why you'd want to add them together. You can't really 'add' times together .

One possible options is to to convert each to milliseconds and then formatting the resultant value.

5 seconds + 3.2 seconds could be:

5000 + 3200 = 8200.

You'd then use System.TimeSpan to convert that into days, hours, minutes ...etc

thanks for the correction Matt

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:31

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Apr 28, 2017 at 18:05

Zeratas

1,0253 gold badges18 silver badges37 bronze badges

5 Comments

Anmol Jaising Over a year ago

I want to add them because i have a code extracting time from an XML running on 3 machines. So wanted to add those time and get the avg

Zeratas Over a year ago

Ok then I'd just convert them to DateTime > Milliseconds > add together than average out.

Matt Johnson-Pint Over a year ago

Do not use DateTime unless the times represent time of day. Use TimeSpan

Matt Johnson-Pint Over a year ago

Your point about adding times together is why I asked what the time represents. You certainly can add 1 minute + 1 minute = 2 minutes. However, you cannot add 3 o'clock am + 5 o'clock pm because that's nonsense. :)

Zeratas Over a year ago

@MattJohnson , agreed. You can add periods of time, but not two different times.

Andrii Litvinov · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-28 18:16:37Z

0

If you know that the format is predefined to be mm:ss.000 you can do following to parse to TimeSpan:

var strings = "00:05.415".Split(new []{'.', ':'}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
var minutes = int.Parse(strings[0]);
var seconds = int.Parse(strings[1]);
var milliseconds = int.Parse(strings[2]);
var time = new TimeSpan(0, 0, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);

And then you can add TimeSpans together.

edited Apr 28, 2017 at 18:16

answered Apr 28, 2017 at 17:57

Andrii Litvinov

13.4k4 gold badges56 silver badges62 bronze badges

2 Comments

juharr Over a year ago

Why do all that parsing when there's TimeSpan.ParseExact?

Andrii Litvinov Over a year ago

@juharr, glad you asked. That's because when I tried TimeSpan.ParseExact I didn't escape periods and it didn't work for me. And then Tim posted his answer.

Aleks · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-02 20:15:25Z

0

If your format is not predefined use this 4KB script https://github.com/alekspetrov/time-input-js

It converts string/number into time format HH:MM:SS

Examples

00:00:00 -> 00:00:00
12:01 -> 12:01:00
12 -> 12:00:00
25 -> 00:00:00
12:60:60 -> 12:00:00
1dg46 -> 14:06
["notatime"] -> 00:00:00 + console warn

answered Apr 2, 2020 at 20:15

Aleks

3533 silver badges7 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Convert time in string format into time format

4 Answers 4

7 Comments

5 Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

7 Comments

5 Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related