DateTime.Ticks Property (System)

.NET Framework Class Library for Silverlight

DateTime..::.Ticks Property

Gets the number of ticks that represent the date and time of this instance.

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

Syntax

Visual Basic (Declaration)

Public ReadOnly Property Ticks As Long
    Get

Visual Basic (Usage)

Dim instance As DateTime
Dim value As Long

value = instance.Ticks

public long Ticks { get; }

Property Value

Type: System..::.Int64
The number of ticks that represents the date and time of this instance. The value is between DateTime.MinValue.Ticks and DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks.

Remarks

A single tick represents one hundred nanoseconds or one ten-millionth of a second. There are 10,000 ticks in a millisecond.

The value of this property represents the number of 100-nanosecond intervals that have elapsed since 12:00:00 midnight, January 1, 0001, which represents DateTime..::.MinValue.

Examples

The following example uses the Ticks property to display the number of ticks that have elapsed since the beginning of the twenty-first century and to instantiate a TimeSpan object. The TimeSpan object is then used to display the elapsed time using several other time intervals.

Visual Basic

Dim centuryBegin As Date = #1/1/2001#
Dim currentDate As Date = Date.Now
Dim elapsedTicks As Long = currentDate.Ticks - centuryBegin.Ticks
Dim elapsedSpan As New TimeSpan(elapsedTicks)

outputBlock.Text += String.Format("Elapsed from the beginning of the century to {0:f}:", _
                   currentDate) & vbCrLf
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N0} nanoseconds", elapsedTicks * 100) & vbCrLf
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N0} ticks", elapsedTicks) & vbCrLf
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N2} seconds", elapsedSpan.TotalSeconds) & vbCrLf
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N2} minutes", elapsedSpan.TotalMinutes) & vbCrLf
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N0} days, {1} hours, {2} minutes, {3} seconds", _
                  elapsedSpan.Days, elapsedSpan.Hours, _
                  elapsedSpan.Minutes, elapsedSpan.Seconds) & vbCrLf
' If run on December 14, 2007, at 15:23, this example displays the
' following output:
'          219,338,580,000,000,000 nanoseconds
'          2,193,385,800,000,000 ticks
'          219,338,580.00 seconds
'          3,655,643.00 minutes
'          2,538 days, 15 hours, 23 minutes, 0 seconds

DateTime centuryBegin = new DateTime(2001, 1, 1);
DateTime currentDate = DateTime.Now;

long elapsedTicks = currentDate.Ticks - centuryBegin.Ticks;
TimeSpan elapsedSpan = new TimeSpan(elapsedTicks);

outputBlock.Text += String.Format("Elapsed from the beginning of the century to {0:f}:",
                   currentDate) + "\n";
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N0} nanoseconds", elapsedTicks * 100) + "\n";
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N0} ticks", elapsedTicks) + "\n";
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N2} seconds", elapsedSpan.TotalSeconds) + "\n";
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N2} minutes", elapsedSpan.TotalMinutes) + "\n";
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("   {0:N0} days, {1} hours, {2} minutes, {3} seconds",
                  elapsedSpan.Days, elapsedSpan.Hours,
                  elapsedSpan.Minutes, elapsedSpan.Seconds) + "\n";
// If run on December 14, 2007, at 15:23, this example displays the
// following output:
//    Elapsed from the beginning of the century to Friday, December 14, 2007 3:23 PM:
//          219,338,580,000,000,000 nanoseconds
//          2,193,385,800,000,000 ticks
//          219,338,580.00 seconds
//          3,655,643.00 minutes
//          2,538 days, 15 hours, 23 minutes, 0 seconds

Platforms

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

Reference

DateTime Structure

DateTime Members

System Namespace