Format TimeSpan in DataGridView column

Question

I've seen these questions but both involve methods that aren't available in the CellStyle Format value. I only want to show the hours and minutes portion (16:05); not the seconds as well (16:05:13). I tried forcing the seconds value to zero but still got something like 16:05:00. Short of using a kludge like providing a string or a DateTime (and only showing the hour/minutes part) is there any way I can get the formatting to do what I want.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 02 '10 at 16:28

I just discovered this myself. Unfortunately, the solution is pretty involved. The good news is that it works.

Firstly, you need an ICustomFormatter implementation that deals with TimeSpan values. The .NET framework does not include such a type out-of-the-box; I am guessing this is because Microsoft didn't want to have to deal with the ambiguity involved in formatting a TimeSpan (e.g., does "hh" mean total hours or only the hour component?) and the ensuing onslaught of support issues that would arise when these ambiguities confused developers.

That's OK -- just implement your own. Below is a sample class I wrote that uses basically the same custom format strings as DateTime (those that were applicable, anyway)*:

class TimeSpanFormatter : IFormatProvider, ICustomFormatter
{
    private Regex _formatParser;

    public TimeSpanFormatter()
    {
        _formatParser = new Regex("d{1,2}|h{1,2}|m{1,2}|s{1,2}|f{1,7}", RegexOptions.Compiled);
    }

    #region IFormatProvider Members

    public object GetFormat(Type formatType)
    {
        if (typeof(ICustomFormatter).Equals(formatType))
        {
            return this;
        }

        return null;
    }

    #endregion

    #region ICustomFormatter Members

    public string Format(string format, object arg, IFormatProvider formatProvider)
    {
        if (arg is TimeSpan)
        {
            var timeSpan = (TimeSpan)arg;
            return _formatParser.Replace(format, GetMatchEvaluator(timeSpan));
        }
        else
        {
            var formattable = arg as IFormattable;
            if (formattable != null)
            {
                return formattable.ToString(format, formatProvider);
            }

            return arg != null ? arg.ToString() : string.Empty;
        }
    }

    #endregion

    private MatchEvaluator GetMatchEvaluator(TimeSpan timeSpan)
    {
        return m => EvaluateMatch(m, timeSpan);
    }

    private string EvaluateMatch(Match match, TimeSpan timeSpan)
    {
        switch (match.Value)
        {
            case "dd":
                return timeSpan.Days.ToString("00");
            case "d":
                return timeSpan.Days.ToString("0");
            case "hh":
                return timeSpan.Hours.ToString("00");
            case "h":
                return timeSpan.Hours.ToString("0");
            case "mm":
                return timeSpan.Minutes.ToString("00");
            case "m":
                return timeSpan.Minutes.ToString("0");
            case "ss":
                return timeSpan.Seconds.ToString("00");
            case "s":
                return timeSpan.Seconds.ToString("0");
            case "fffffff":
                return (timeSpan.Milliseconds * 10000).ToString("0000000");
            case "ffffff":
                return (timeSpan.Milliseconds * 1000).ToString("000000");
            case "fffff":
                return (timeSpan.Milliseconds * 100).ToString("00000");
            case "ffff":
                return (timeSpan.Milliseconds * 10).ToString("0000");
            case "fff":
                return (timeSpan.Milliseconds).ToString("000");
            case "ff":
                return (timeSpan.Milliseconds / 10).ToString("00");
            case "f":
                return (timeSpan.Milliseconds / 100).ToString("0");
            default:
                return match.Value;
        }
    }
}

We're not finished yet. With this type in place, you are equipped to assign a custom formatter to the column in your DataGridView that you want to use for displaying your TimeSpan values.

Let's say that column is called "Time"; then you would do this:

DataGridViewColumn timeColumn = dataGridView.Columns["Time"];
timeColumn.DefaultCellStyle.FormatProvider = new TimeSpanFormatter();
timeColumn.DefaultCellStyle.Format = "hh:mm";

So now you're set up, right?

Well, for some odd reason, you're still not 100% of the way there. Why custom formatting can't kick in at this point, I honestly couldn't tell you. But we're almost done. The one final step is to handle the CellFormatting event to get this new functionality we've written to actually take effect:

private void dataGridView_CellFormatting(object sender, DataGridViewCellFormattingEventArgs e)
{
    var formatter = e.CellStyle.FormatProvider as ICustomFormatter;
    if (formatter != null)
    {
        e.Value = formatter.Format(e.CellStyle.Format, e.Value, e.CellStyle.FormatProvider);
        e.FormattingApplied = true;
    }
}

At last, we're finished. Setting the DefaultCellStyle.Format property of the DataGridViewColumn you want formatted according to your custom rules should now work as expected.

_{*So, "h"/"hh" for hours, "m"/"mm" for minutes. etc.}

You might be right about why it's not in the framework. That's a lot more involved than I thought it would have been, thanks. — Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight, Sep 02 '10 at 17:39
Great! Do you have a solution for handling user edits with this custom formatter? — bretddog, Jun 09 '12 at 10:03
Starting with .NET 4 you can (and should) use @David's solution, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee372287(v=vs.100).aspx. — Astrogator, Aug 13 '14 at 17:14

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 20:59

9

It is possible to achieve the effect same by just using the CellFormatting event.

private void dataGridView_CellFormatting(object sender,
           DataGridViewCellFormattingEventArgs e)
{
      if (e.Value != null && e.Value != DBNull.Value)
            e.Value =  ((TimeSpan)e.Value).Hours.ToString("00") + ":" +
                       ((TimeSpan)e.Value).Minutes.ToString("00");
}

This obviously is not as comprehensive a solution, but quite quick.

answered Nov 15 '12 at 20:59

David

91
1
1

Starting with .NET 4 this could be simplified to formatting directly: `if( e.ColumnIndex == idx && e.Value != null && e.Value != DBNull.Value ) { e.Value = ((TimeSpan) e.Value).ToString( "ddd\\.hh\\:mm\\:ss" ); }`, or even better, by adding the following to the initialization of the DataGridView: `dgv.Columns[ idx ].DefaultCellStyle.Format= "ddd\\.hh\\:mm\\:ss";` – Astrogator Aug 13 '14 at 17:37

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 19 '15 at 16:40

6

Try the following code

dataGridView1.Columns["columnName"].DefaultCellStyle.Format = "hh\\:mm";

edited Feb 19 '15 at 16:40

Ram

3,092
10
40
56

answered Feb 19 '15 at 16:02

Sponsor

368
4
9

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 29 '11 at 15:51

2

I don't know how to set the format of the cell to show only hours and minutes. I'd suggest you set the format of the cell to string and format the value like this:

String.Format("{0:D2}:{1:D2}",
    DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay.Hours, DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay.Minutes);

edited Jun 29 '11 at 15:51

takrl

6,356
3
60
69

answered Sep 02 '10 at 15:08

Deniplane

415
9
15

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 09 '17 at 08:07

0

Use format string "hh\\:mm". e.g

YourGrid.Column[index].DefaultCellStyle.Format = "hh\\:mm"

edited Aug 09 '17 at 08:07

Nathan Tuggy

2,237
27
30
38

answered Aug 09 '17 at 07:30

HAN

9
5

Always check your formatting before you post to make sure the entire point wasn't lost to a misunderstanding of Markdown. – Nathan Tuggy Aug 09 '17 at 08:07

NoWar · Answer 6 · 2021-06-02T07:18:42.577

Try another approach. Just add to your class binding to the datagridview properties like for instance LastPacketAtTimeDelayAsStr.

Let's say you have some class that has it...

public DateTime? LastPacketAtTime { get; set; }

public TimeSpan? LastPacketAtTimeDelay 
{ 
   get 
   {
         if (LastPacketAtTime.HasValue)
         {
              var ts = DateTime.Now - LastPacketAtTime.Value;
              return ts;
         }
         return null;
    }          
}

public string LastPacketAtTimeDelayAsStr
{
     get
     {
         if (LastPacketAtTimeDelay.HasValue)
         {            
             var hours = LastPacketAtTimeDelay.Value.Hours.ToString("00");
             var minutes = LastPacketAtTimeDelay.Value.Minutes.ToString("00");
             var seconds = LastPacketAtTimeDelay.Value.Seconds.ToString("00");
    
           return $"{LastPacketAtTimeDelay.Value.Days} days {hours}:{minutes}:{seconds}";
          }
          return null;
      }
}

And after that just bind the LastPacketAtTimeDelayAsStr to the DataGridView column you need which has String datatype.

And that's it!

Format TimeSpan in DataGridView column

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