Calculating Timespan using asp.net

Question

Hi

I would like to use asp.net c# to calculate the timespan for when a file was uploaded. Example, if i uploaded a file two weeks ago my text will say 'uploaded 2 weeks ago' or if i have upload a file 4 month's ago my text will say 'uploaded 4 months ago'

Can anyone please give me some tips on how i can go about this.

Thanks

Answer 1

I had this issue and created TimeSpan extension class as below.

For usage you just use ToFriendlyString() on the TimeSpan instance.

public static class TimeSpanExtensions
{
    public static string ToFriendlyString(this TimeSpan t)
    {
        return ToFriendlyString(t, Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture);
    }

    public static string ToFriendlyString(this TimeSpan t, CultureInfo cultureInfo)
    {
        if(cultureInfo.IetfLanguageTag.StartsWith("en"))
        {
            return ToFriendlyString_English(t);
        }
        else
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException("This culture is currently not supported.");
        }
    }

    private static string ToFriendlyString_English(TimeSpan t)
    {
        int years = t.Days/365;
        int months = t.Days/30;
        int weeks = t.Days/7;

        if (years > 0) 
        {
            return string.Format("{0} year{1}", years, years > 1 ? "s" : "");
        }
        if (months > 0)
        {
            return string.Format("{0} month{1}", months, months > 1 ? "s" : "");
        }
        if (weeks > 0)
        {
            return string.Format("{0} week{1}", weeks, weeks > 1 ? "s" : "");
        }
        if (t.Days > 0)
        {
            return string.Format("{0} day{1}", t.Days, t.Days > 1 ? "s" : "");
        }
        if (t.Hours > 0)
        {
            return string.Format("{0} hour{1}", t.Hours, t.Hours > 1 ? "s" : "");
        }
        if (t.Minutes > 0)
        {
            return string.Format("{0} minute{1}", t.Minutes, t.Minutes > 1 ? "s" : "");
        }
        if (t.Seconds > 0)
        {
            return string.Format("{0} second{1}", t.Seconds, t.Seconds > 1 ? "s" : "");
        }
        return "now";
    }
}

Answer 2

You can get the timespan using DateTime.Now - dateTimeOfUpload. This will produce a TimeSpan object. From this object, you can use e.g. the TotalDays to give the number of months the dateTimeOfUpload is in the past.