Article
11/18/2011

TimeSpan.TryParse Method (String, IFormatProvider, TimeSpan%)

Microsoft Silverlight will reach end of support after October 2021. Learn more.

Converts the string representation of a time interval to its TimeSpan equivalent by using the specified culture-specific formatting information, and returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

Namespace: System
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
Public Shared Function TryParse ( _
    input As String, _
    formatProvider As IFormatProvider, _
    <OutAttribute> ByRef result As TimeSpan _
) As Boolean

public static bool TryParse(
    string input,
    IFormatProvider formatProvider,
    out TimeSpan result
)

Parameters

input
Type: System.String
A string that specifies the time interval to convert.

formatProvider
Type: System.IFormatProvider
An object that supplies culture-specific formatting information.

result
Type: System.TimeSpan%
When this method returns, contains an object that represents the time interval specified by input, or TimeSpan.Zero if the conversion failed. This parameter is passed uninitialized.

Return Value

Type: System.Boolean
true if input was converted successfully; otherwise, false. This operation returns false if the input parameter is nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic) or String.Empty, has an invalid format, represents a time interval that is less than TimeSpan.MinValue or greater than TimeSpan.MaxValue, or has at least one days, hours, minutes, or seconds component outside its valid range.

Remarks

The TryParse(String, IFormatProvider, TimeSpan%) method is like the Parse(String, IFormatProvider) method, except that it does not throw an exception if the conversion fails.

The input parameter contains a time interval specification in the form:

[ws][-]{ d | d.hh:mm[:ss[.ff]] | hh:mm[:ss[.ff]] }[ws]

Elements in square brackets ([ and ]) are optional. One selection from the list of alternatives enclosed in braces ({ and }) and separated by vertical bars (|) is required. The following table describes each element.

Element	Description
ws	Optional white space.
-	An optional minus sign, which indicates a negative TimeSpan.
d	Days, ranging from 0 to 10675199.
.	A culture-sensitive symbol that separates days from hours. The invariant format uses a period (".") character.
hh	Hours, ranging from 0 to 23.
:	The culture-sensitive time separator symbol. The invariant format uses a colon (":") character.
mm	Minutes, ranging from 0 to 59.
ss	Optional seconds, ranging from 0 to 59.
.	A culture-sensitive symbol that separates seconds from fractions of a second. The invariant format uses a period (".") character.
ff	Optional fractional seconds, consisting of one to seven decimal digits.

The components of input must collectively specify a time interval that is greater than or equal to TimeSpan.MinValue and less than or equal to TimeSpan.MaxValue.

The Parse(String, IFormatProvider) method first tries to parse input by using the invariant format. If this is not successful, it next tries each of the culture-specific formats for the culture specified by formatProvider.

The formatProvider parameter is an IFormatProvider implementation that provides culture-specific information about the format of the returned string. The formatProvider parameter can be any of the following:

A CultureInfo object that represents the culture whose formatting conventions are to be reflected in the returned string. The DateTimeFormatInfo object returned by the CultureInfo.DateTimeFormat property defines the formatting of the returned string.
A DateTimeFormatInfo object that defines the formatting of the returned string.
A custom object that implements the IFormatProvider interface. Its IFormatProvider.GetFormat method returns a DateTimeFormatInfo object that provides formatting information.

If formatProvider is nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic), the DateTimeFormatInfo object that is associated with the current culture is used.

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

Share via