converting datetime variable to timespan variable

Question

I have an interface that is feeding me a datetimeupdated variable with the type of DateTime but I need to read it as type TimeSpan. I'm trying to do the conversion and it kind of worked but not really. I followed this post. Convert DateTime to TimeSpan

Code:

if (e.CmsData != null)
{
    List<NewAgent> newAgentList = new List<NewAgent>();                    

    Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, (Action)(() =>
    {                                         
        foreach (var item in e.CmsData.Agents)
        {
            NewAgent newAgents = new ScoreBoardClientTest.NewAgent();

            newAgents.AgentName = item.AgName;

            newAgents.AgentExtension = item.Extension;

            newAgents.AgentDateTimeChange = ConvertedDateTimeUpdated;

            newAgents.AuxReasons = item.AuxReasonDescription;

            newAgents.LoginIdentifier = item.LoginId;

            ConvertedDateTimeUpdated = item.DateTimeUpdated - new DateTime(01/01/2000);
            time = ConvertedDateTimeUpdated;
            agentTime = time -  DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay;

            newAgents.AgentDateTimeStateChange = agentTime;
            newAgentList.Add(newAgents);
        }

        datagrid.ItemsSource = newAgentList;
    }));                    
}

XAML:

<DataGrid.Columns>
    <DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding AgentName}"  />
    <DataGridTextColumn Header="Aux Reason" Binding="{Binding AuxReasons}" />
    <DataGridTextColumn Header="Time" Binding="{Binding AgentDateTimeStateChange}" />
</DataGrid.Columns>

AgentClass

class NewAgent
    {
        public string AgentName { get; set; }
        public int AgentExtension { get; set; }
        public TimeSpan AgentDateTimeChange { get; set; }
        public TimeSpan AgentDateTimeStateChange { get; set; }
        public String AuxReasons { get; set; }
        public string LoginIdentifier { get; set; }

    }

When I print this out to my list I get the below pasted into the fields instead of a format of 00:00:00.

please let me know if this is not enough code to understand what I am trying to accomplish and I'll post all of what I have. Also important to note that item.datetimeupdated is in the format of 00/00/0000 00:00:00.

You have a formatting problem. Show us the code and/or XAML that you use to "print this out into my list". And please show us your actual code, not weird stuff that doesn't compile, like `new DateTime(01/01/2000)`. — 15ee8f99-57ff-4f92-890c-b56153, Mar 30 '17 at 14:27
I updated the answer with the actual code. and that does compile. — mcavanaugh418, Mar 30 '17 at 14:31
What are `ConvertedDateTimeUpdated`, `time`, and `agentTime`? Are they declared right outside the loop, or are they fields belonging to the class? What type are they? — 15ee8f99-57ff-4f92-890c-b56153, Mar 30 '17 at 14:39
I've eliminated that and am probably going to go with the answer below because it works great. I'm just trying to figure out how to get rid of the milliseconds — mcavanaugh418, Mar 30 '17 at 14:59
You'd do that with the StringFormat property of the Binding. Something like this: `Binding="{Binding AgentDateTimeStateChange, StringFormat=hh:mm:ss}"`. Looks like Ben's way ahead of me on that. — 15ee8f99-57ff-4f92-890c-b56153, Mar 30 '17 at 15:02
@EdPlunkett I've not used WPF before, so this is as far as I can go :) — Ben Jenkinson, Mar 30 '17 at 15:07
It's this: `Binding="{Binding AgentDateTimeStateChange, StringFormat={}{0:hh':'mm':'ss}}"` — 15ee8f99-57ff-4f92-890c-b56153, Mar 30 '17 at 15:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

2

I think that what you're trying to accomplish is display the time portion of the DateTime instance; but represented as a TimeSpan.

In which case, this should be all you need.

var timeSpan = item.DateTimeUpdated.TimeOfDay;

If you're trying to display "How long ago from now was this updated?" Then you'll need to do something like..

var timeSpanSince = DateTime.Now - item.DateTimeUpdated;

(These answers do not take into account the complexity caused by time-zones, or whether your database values are stored as UTC etc..)

Edit: Looking at the rest of your code, you might also be interested in these two questions on how to change the way the value is displayed in the data grid:

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

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answered Mar 30 '17 at 14:36

Ben Jenkinson

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I'm not worried about timezones or how database values are stored. an update will occur every few minutes and this will reset to 00:00:00 so the above should be enough. I'll test and update you if this works for me. Thanks – mcavanaugh418 Mar 30 '17 at 14:39
so this did work but I'm still getting it in the format of 00:00:00.0000000 Do you know if its possible to eliminate everything after the decimal point? – mcavanaugh418 Mar 30 '17 at 14:52
The grid is effectively doing `timeSpan.ToString()` and displaying the result. I've added some links to other questions that can show how to provide a `StringFormat` in the binding. – Ben Jenkinson Mar 30 '17 at 15:01

converting datetime variable to timespan variable

1 Answers1