I have the following statemnt.
timespan = timespan.FromSeconds(236541)
formattedTimeSpan = String.Format("{0} hr {1} mm {2} sec", Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours), timespan.Minutes, timespan.Seconds)
I have to have it formatted as "hrs mn sec" if there are more than one hour. I want to check this within the String.Format above.
Thanks.
Probably the cleanest way to do this is to write your own ICustomFormatter. Here's an example of a convenient pluralizer format:
using System;
public class PluralFormatter : IFormatProvider, ICustomFormatter {
public object GetFormat(Type formatType) {
if (formatType == typeof(ICustomFormatter))
return this;
else
return null;
}
public string Format(string format, object arg,
IFormatProvider formatProvider)
{
if (! formatProvider.Equals(this)) return null;
if (! format.StartsWith("^")) return null;
String[] parts = format.Split(new char[] {'^'});
int choice = ((int) arg) == 1 ? 1 : 2;
return String.Format("{0} {1}", arg, parts[choice]);
}
public static void Main() {
Console.WriteLine(String.Format(
new PluralFormatter(),
"{0:^puppy^puppies}, {1:^child^children}, and {2:^kitten^kittens}",
13, 1, 42
));
}
}
The output is, as one might've guessed (and as seen on ideone.com):
13 puppies, 1 child, and 42 kittens
One possibility is to make the plural part of the format string, and write:
formattedTimeSpan = String.Format("{0} hr{1} {2} mm {3} sec",
Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours),
Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours) == 1 ? "" : "s",
timespan.Minutes,
timespan.Seconds);
This will insert a "s" into the output if the output says anything other than "1 hr".
Note that this is not friendly to localization: other languages form plurals differently than English.
No magic here. Why would you code in whatever condition format may offer, when you can code in C#?
To avoid duplicated code, you might as promote some expressions to variables, and use the condition on them:
timespan = timespan.FromSeconds(236541);
int hours = Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours);
string hoursUnit = hours == 1 ? "hr" : "hrs";
formattedTimeSpan = String.Format("{0}{1} {2} mm {3} sec",
hours, hoursUnit, timespan.Minutes, timespan.Seconds);
I use a few extension methods which help me with this sort of thing:
public static string Inflect(this string noun, int count)
{
return (count == 1 || noun.EndsWith("s", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)) ? noun : noun + "s";
}
public static string Of(this int count, string noun)
{
return string.Format("{0} {1}", count, noun.Inflect(count));
}
e.g.:
"Hour".Inflect(1) : Hour
"Hour".Inflect(2) : Hours
0.Of("hour") : "0 hours"
1.Of("hour") : "1 hour"
5.Of("hour") : "5 hours"
(2).Of("Memory", "Memories") - you don't want to rewrite the English Grammar in your code...
You should use the various time format specifiers. It helps simplify the call to Format() immensely.
var timespan = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(236541);
var formattedTimeSpan = String.Format("{0:hh} hr{1} {0:mm} mm {0:ss} sec",
timespan, timespan.Hours != 1 ? "s" : "");
There is no "simple" way of doing this.
You can either do it like this
string templateSingleHour = "{0} hr {1} mm {2} sec";
string templateMultiHour = "{0} hrs {1} mm {2} sec";
string template = Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours) > 1 ? templateMultiHour :templateSingleHour;
formattedTimeSpan = String.Format(template ...)
or like this
formattedTimeSpan = String.Format("{0} {3} {1} mm {2} sec", Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours), timespan.Minutes, timespan.Seconds, Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours) > 1 ? "hrs" : "hr");
Math.Truncate(timespan.TotalHours) > 1 when you can use timespan.TotalHours >= 2?FWIW, if your app is going to be used my non-english speakers ever then this is something that's not trivial. There is a blog post that expounds on the problem at http://www.siao2.com/2007/07/24/4022881.aspx
"{0} hr(s)...".