Format TimeSpan in DataGridView column

13,110

Solution 1

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.

Solution 2

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.

Solution 3

Try the following code

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

Solution 4

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);
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Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
Author by

Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight

Updated on June 04, 2022

Comments

  • Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight over 1 year

    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.

  • Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight about 13 years
    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.
  • Admin
    Admin almost 13 years
    Works perfectly. A heart felt Thank you.
  • bretddog
    bretddog over 11 years
    Great! Do you have a solution for handling user edits with this custom formatter?
  • Astrogator
    Astrogator about 9 years
    Starting with .NET 4 you can (and should) use @David's solution, see msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee372287(v=vs.100).aspx.
  • Astrogator
    Astrogator about 9 years
    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";
  • Nathan Tuggy
    Nathan Tuggy about 6 years
    Always check your formatting before you post to make sure the entire point wasn't lost to a misunderstanding of Markdown.