Get DateTime.Now with milliseconds precision - Stack Overflow

I have an application, where I sample values 10 times per second, and I need to show them in a graph. c# datetime precision milliseconds · Share. Home Public Questions Tags Users Collectives ExploreCollectives FindaJob Jobs Companies Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Collaborateandshareknowledgewithaprivategroup. CreateafreeTeam WhatisTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam CollectivesonStackOverflow Findcentralized,trustedcontentandcollaboratearoundthetechnologiesyouusemost. Learnmore Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore GetDateTime.Nowwithmillisecondsprecision AskQuestion Asked 8years,11monthsago Modified 11monthsago Viewed 470ktimes 265 43 HowcanIexactlyconstructatimestampofactualtimewithmillisecondsprecision? Ineedsomethinglike16.4.20139:48:00:123.Isthispossible?Ihaveanapplication,whereIsamplevalues10timespersecond,andIneedtoshowtheminagraph. c#datetimeprecisionmilliseconds Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedJul16,2015at8:15 PeterMortensen 29.8k2121goldbadges9898silverbadges124124bronzebadges askedApr16,2013at8:41 LuckyHKLuckyHK 2,66122goldbadges1111silverbadges66bronzebadges 2 Relatedmsdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb882581.aspx – SonerGönül Apr16,2013at8:47 Beawarethatanumberoftheanswersareusinghhforhours(standardtime).Inthecaseofatimestamp(andinmanyothercases)thisshouldprobablybepairedwithtt(am/pm)orreplacedbyHH(militarytime). – wentz Mar7,2019at19:27 Addacomment  |  12Answers 12 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 346 HowcanIexactlyconstructatimestampofactualtimewithmillisecondsprecision? Isuspectyoumeanmillisecondaccuracy.DateTimehasalotofprecision,butisfairlycoarseintermsofaccuracy.Generallyspeaking,youcan't.Usuallythesystemclock(whichiswhereDateTime.Nowgetsitsdatafrom)hasaresolutionofaround10-15ms.SeeEricLippert'sblogpostaboutprecisionandaccuracyformoredetails. Ifyouneedmoreaccuratetimingthanthis,youmaywanttolookintousinganNTPclient. However,it'snotclearthatyoureallyneedmillisecondaccuracyhere.Ifyoudon'tcareabouttheexacttiming-youjustwanttoshowthesamplesintherightorder,with"prettygood"accuracy,thenthesystemclockshouldbefine.I'dadviseyoutouseDateTime.UtcNowratherthanDateTime.Nowthough,toavoidtimezoneissuesarounddaylightsavingtransitions,etc. IfyourquestionisactuallyjustaroundconvertingaDateTimetoastringwithmillisecondprecision,I'dsuggestusing: stringtimestamp=DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddHH:mm:ss.fff", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture); (Notethatunlikeyoursample,thisissortableandlesslikelytocauseconfusionaroundwhetherit'smeanttobe"month/day/year"or"day/month/year".) Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedFeb23,2020at3:49 CallumWatkins 2,56522goldbadges3131silverbadges4545bronzebadges answeredApr16,2013at8:45 JonSkeetJonSkeet 1.3m817817goldbadges88958895silverbadges90319031bronzebadges 9 5 @antonio:Withnomoreinformationthan"don'tworks"Ican'tprovideanymorehelp. – JonSkeet Feb1,2018at6:57 Yes,Icanprovidemoreinfo:"{0:yyyyMMddHH:mm:ss.fff}",DateTime.UtcNow->2018050211:07:20.000Win32.GetSystemTime(refstime)->2018,2,5,11,7,20,0(ymdhmmssms)Icancreateainstanceofdatetimewithmilliseconds:vardt=newDateTime(2018,5,2,19,34,55,200);"{0:yyyyMMddHH:mm:ss.fff}",dt->2018050219:34:55.200.Netcompactframework,WindowsEmbeddedCompact7,onARMCortex-A8 – antonio Feb5,2018at11:23 @antonio:Soitsoundsliketheversionof.NETyou'reusingonthehardwareyou'reusingsimplydoesn'tprovidesubsecondaccuracy-oryouhappenedtocallitonasecondboundary.(IfyoukeephittingDateTime.UtcNowrepeatedly,doesitonlyeverincrementoncepersecond?Youhaven'tshownthat.) – JonSkeet Feb5,2018at11:25 WhenIretrieveTicksfromDateTime.Now,thevaluecometruncated:Ticks636534596580000000DateTimefromTicks2018020520:34:18.000.thelimitationisinthehard/software,ithink.IhaveusingStopwatchclass,insteadThanksJon – antonio Feb5,2018at11:41 1 @kuldeep:I'mafraidifyou'veaskedsufficientlybadquestionstobequestion-banned,I'mnotgoingtotrytobypassthatbygettingintowhatshouldbeanotherquestionviacomments.Isuggestyouedityouroldquestionstobebetter,totrytoremovetheban. – JonSkeet Sep5,2020at6:53  |  Show4morecomments 131 Thisshouldwork: DateTime.Now.ToString("hh.mm.ss.ffffff"); Ifyoudon'tneedittobedisplayedandjustneedtoknowthetimedifference,welldon'tconvertittoaString.Justleaveitas,DateTime.Now(); AnduseTimeSpantoknowthedifferencebetweentimeintervals: Example DateTimestart; TimeSpantime; start=DateTime.Now; //Dosomethinghere time=DateTime.Now-start; label1.Text=String.Format("{0}.{1}",time.Seconds,time.Milliseconds.ToString().PadLeft(3,'0')); Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedJul16,2015at8:17 PeterMortensen 29.8k2121goldbadges9898silverbadges124124bronzebadges answeredApr16,2013at8:45 PyromancerPyromancer 2,32355goldbadges1818silverbadges2828bronzebadges 2 Ineedcomputewithit,soIcan'tconvertittostring. – LuckyHK Apr16,2013at8:50 Notethatthemostprecisionforsub-secondsisapparently7,asin"hh.mm.ss.fffffff". – Nae Jun29,2021at21:17 Addacomment  |  28 Iwaslookingforasimilarsolution,baseonwhatwassuggestedonthisthread,Iusethefollowing DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyyhh:mm:ss.fff") ,anditworklikecharm.Note:that.fffaretheprecisionnumbersthatyouwishtocapture. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedJun25,2017at23:42 Luis 5,58688goldbadges4141silverbadges6161bronzebadges answeredJan5,2017at17:22 JozcarJozcar 91699silverbadges1111bronzebadges 1 1 Ifthedateisinafternoon(4PM)willshowsasinthemorning.FIX:UseHH(militarytime)oraddtt(PMorAM).Asshowninthisexample:repl.it/KGr3/1 – Jaider Aug11,2017at22:12 Addacomment  |  22 UseDateTimeStructurewithmillisecondsandformatlikethis: stringtimestamp=DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddHH:mm:ss.fff", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture); timestamp=timestamp.Replace("-","."); Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredJan31,2018at19:23 JacmanJacman 1,34033goldbadges1818silverbadges3030bronzebadges Addacomment  |  16 Pyromancer'sanswerseemsprettygoodtome,butmaybeyouwanted: DateTime.Now.Millisecond Butifyouarecomparingdates,TimeSpanisthewaytogo. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedMay23,2017at10:31 CommunityBot 111silverbadge answeredNov29,2013at0:15 RenaeRenae 42266silverbadges1515bronzebadges 1 16 Note:Ifyou'recomparingthedifferencebetweentwoDateTimesasaTimeSpan,youneedTotalMilliseconds.MillisecondsholdsthecurrentMillisecondscounter,whichisnevergreaterthan1000,whereasTotalMillisecondsholdsthetotalmillisecondselapsedsincetheepoch. – Contango Sep12,2014at11:48 Addacomment  |  4 Ifyoustillwantadateinsteadofastringliketheotheranswers,justaddthisextensionmethod. publicstaticDateTimeToMillisecondPrecision(thisDateTimed){ returnnewDateTime(d.Year,d.Month,d.Day,d.Hour,d.Minute, d.Second,d.Millisecond,d.Kind); } Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedFeb16,2018at20:34 pirho 10.3k1212goldbadges4141silverbadges6060bronzebadges answeredFeb16,2018at20:16 birchbirch 4122bronzebadges Addacomment  |  3 AsfarasIunderstandthequestion,youcangofor: DateTimedateTime=DateTime.Now; DateTimedateTimeInMilliseconds=dateTime.AddTicks(-1*dateTime.Ticks%10000); Thiswillcutofftickssmallerthan1millisecond. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedDec14,2016at20:08 PeterMortensen 29.8k2121goldbadges9898silverbadges124124bronzebadges answeredJul25,2016at16:39 RolandDietzRolandDietz 4933bronzebadges 1 Yes,buttheactualresolutionofDateTime.Nowmaynotbemorethanabout16ms. – PeterMortensen Dec14,2016at20:09 Addacomment  |  2 ThetroublewithDateTime.UtcNowandDateTime.Nowisthat,dependingonthecomputerandoperatingsystem,itmayonlybeaccuratetobetween10and15milliseconds.However,onwindowscomputersonecanusebyusingthelowlevelfunctionGetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTimetogetmicrosecondaccuracy,seethefunctionGetTimeStamp()below. [System.Security.SuppressUnmanagedCodeSecurity,System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll")] staticexternvoidGetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime(outFileTimepFileTime); [System.Runtime.InteropServices.StructLayout(System.Runtime.InteropServices.LayoutKind.Sequential)] publicstructFileTime{ publicconstlongFILETIME_TO_DATETIMETICKS=504911232000000000;//146097=daysin400yearGregoriancalendarcycle.504911232000000000=4*146097*86400*1E7 publicuintTimeLow;//leastsignificantdigits publicuintTimeHigh;//mostsifnificantdigits publiclongTimeStamp_FileTimeTicks{get{returnTimeHigh*4294967296+TimeLow;}}//tickssince1-Jan-1601(1tick=100nanosecs).4294967296=2^32 publicDateTimedateTime{get{returnnewDateTime(TimeStamp_FileTimeTicks+FILETIME_TO_DATETIMETICKS);}} } publicstaticDateTimeGetTimeStamp(){ FileTimeft;GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime(outft); returnft.dateTime; } Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredApr30,2018at16:25 StochasticallyStochastically 7,41655goldbadges2929silverbadges5858bronzebadges 1 Thankyousomuch.I'vebeensearchingthissolong.Isitcauseanyperformanceissuesandisitsafetouseproductioncode? – MuhammetGöktürkAyan Aug28,2018at7:48 Addacomment  |  0 tryusingdatetime.now.ticks.thisprovidesnanosecondprecision.takingthedeltaoftwoticks(stoptick-starttick)/10,000isthemillisecondofspecifiedinterval. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.datetime.ticks?view=netframework-4.7.2 Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredDec3,2018at15:42 darkstardarkstar 1111bronzebadge Addacomment  |  0 AnotheroptionistoconstructanewDateTimeinstancefromthesourceDateTimevalue: //currentdateandtime varnow=DateTime.Now; //modifieddateandtimewithmillisecondaccuracy varmsec=newDateTime(now.Year,now.Month,now.Day,now.Hour,now.Minute,now.Second,now.Millisecond,now.Kind); There'snoneedtodoanyto-stringandfrom-stringconversions,andit'salsoverywellunderstandableandreadablecode. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredApr8,2021at13:51 OndrejTucnyOndrejTucny 26.6k66goldbadges6666silverbadges8888bronzebadges Addacomment  |  -2 publiclongmillis(){ return(long.MaxValue+DateTime.Now.ToBinary())/10000; } Ifyouwantmicroseconds,justchange10000to10,andifyouwantthe10thofmicro,delete/10000. Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedAug4,2017at15:40 TamásSengel 51.2k2727goldbadges152152silverbadges192192bronzebadges answeredAug4,2017at13:00 distikingdistiking 733bronzebadges Addacomment  |  -3 DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyhhmmssffff") Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredApr1,2014at8:38 amoljadhaoamoljadhao 11866bronzebadges Addacomment  |  YourAnswer ThanksforcontributingananswertoStackOverflow!Pleasebesuretoanswerthequestion.Providedetailsandshareyourresearch!Butavoid…Askingforhelp,clarification,orrespondingtootheranswers.Makingstatementsbasedonopinion;backthemupwithreferencesorpersonalexperience.Tolearnmore,seeourtipsonwritinggreatanswers. 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