public string ToString(
	string format
)

Public Function ToString ( _
	format As String _
) As String

public:
String^ ToString(
	String^ format
)

public String ToString(
	String format
)

public function ToString(
	format : String
) : String

Return Value

TimeSpanFormattable provides large pallete of formats that can be used to represent current instance as String. Predefined and custom formats can be used.

Formats in braces:

There are several contexts where you can use other nested format string to format part of rendered string. Those nested format strings are also enclosed with braces (). The format string expected in braces depends on value being formated. d,h,m,s,l and t are integral numbers, D,H,M,S and L are floating point numbers and T is DateTime. You can use any format string valied for appropriate data type - predefined or custom or you can leave braces empty to use default format. Because you may want to pass closing brace ')' into custom format, you must understand how the closing brace is being esacped. If you want to pass the ')' into custom format instead of using it to close custom format block escape it with '\' (type '\)'). If you want to pass backslash ('\') into nested custom format string escape it with another '\' (type '\\'). Note if you will type any other chracter than ')' or '\' after '\' inside braces-delimited nested custom format string the whole sequence will be passed into underlying nested custom format string. For example if you want to use custom format string 'hh"(hours) and "mm"(minutes)"' (which produces something like '13(hours) and 33(minutes)' you should type

Examples

Conditional formating:

Any part of formating string can be surrounded by conditional formating construct. Sub-string in each part of conditional formatting must be valid formating string. Sub-string outside conditional formatting must be valid formating string. Conditional formatings can be nested.

Conditional formating has similar structure as if-elseif-else statement. It begins with brace '(' and ends with brace ')'. Conditions are stated in another braces '()' just at start of conditional part. 2nd and next conditional parts are delimited by pipe '|' (followsed by braces with condition). Last conditional part (the else) does not need condition. Syntax of conditional segment of formating string is:

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((condition1)format1|(condition2)format2|(condition3)format3|format4)

There can be 1 or more condition-format pairs. There can be or can be not last fall-backl format. Conditions are evaluated from left to right. Format associated with firts condition that evaluates to true is emited to output. False evaluated formats and skipped formats are still parsed and must be valid. But are not emitted to output. Syntax of condition is:

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value operator literal

Value can be one of following:

Any value can be surronded by pipes (||) in order to make absolute value of it.

Operator can be one of following comparison operators: <, <=, =, >, >=, <>

Literal is numeric literal in like 123.148. Can be preceded with negative sing (-). Parts on the left and on the right side of decimal dot are optinal. Examples of valid number are: 128, -128, 128., .128, 128.128, -.128, -128., -128, 128. When comparing to T (whole TimeSpan) right operand shall not be number but time value in format D.h:m:s.l. Time literal have not to be fully specified. If it is specified as number only, it is treated as hours. Days can be ommited (including first dot). Minutes, seconds and milliseconds can be ommited including leading colons (or dots). Examples of valid times are: 14 (14 hours), 14.3 (14 days, 3 hours), 14.25:10 (14 days, 25 hours, 10 minutes), 10 (10 hours), 10:00:01 (10 hours, 1 second), 0:0:0000001.321 (1.321 seconds)

Conditions does not allow any spaces in them. Any character that is not understood is treated as error. Technically you can specify multiple fall down conditions and specify |() condition after | condition. Practically no such condition is ever emitted because some of prevous conditions (|) have evaluetad to true. However syntactically it is OK, error oe not thrown. Any formating that can be used outside conditions (including so-called formats in braces) can be used inside conditions.

Note: Format string is parsed from left to right by finite deterministic state automaton and thus format string like mmm on time span of value 1:14:00 will produce "1414" etc.

Examples (both have same results):

Examples

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Time is\: ((M>=60)hh:mm:ss|(S>=60)mm:ss|ss).l

Examples

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Time is\: ((T>=1)hh:mm:ss|(T>=0:1)mm:ss|ss).l

Note: All numbers are rendered as absolute value, you must use +/- to display a sign

See also: Custom numeric formats, Standard numeric formats