Displaying a negative time in Delphi

Question

Hi,

I am developing a timer in Delphi 2009. I am currently using the following to format my timer display:

Caption := Format('%.2d', [Hours]) + ':' + 
           Format('%.2d', [Minutes]) + ':' + 
           Format('%.2d', [Seconds]);

and this as expected displays the time as:

00:04:35

However, when I go into negative time it is understandably displaying it as:

00:-04:-35

I need the time to display as:

-00:04:35

Any Ideas?

Answer 1

Hi, try this

Prefix:='';
if (Hours<0) or (Minutes<0) or (Seconds<0) then
Prefix:='-';

Caption := Prefix+Format('%.2d', [Abs(Hours)]) + ':' + 
           Format('%.2d', [Abs(Minutes)]) + ':' + 
           Format('%.2d', [Abs(Seconds)]);

Bye.

Answer 2

Well, you're formatting each number separately, therefore its no surprise you get negative sign on all of them. Try this:

Caption := Format('%.2d', [Abs(Hours)]) + ':' + 
           Format('%.2d', [Abs(Minutes)]) + ':' + 
           Format('%.2d', [Abs(Seconds)]);

if (Hours < 0) or (Minutes < 0) or (Seconds < 0) then begin
  Caption := '-' + Caption;
end;