Question

I would like to store the current time as an integer, re perl. I know I need a TimeSpan, starting from windows time start. I know windows time starts from when?, Jan 1st, 1601.

scope_creep

Answer 1

Does it HAVE to be an integer? Could it be a long? If so, the easy answer is to use the .Ticks property on a DateTime object.

You can also get the “minimum” DateTime supported from the MinValue property. You could then use the normal subtraction operator to get a TimeSpan difference between two DateTimes.

Also, storing times as integers can be tricky, because the maximum (unsigned) int value can only store about 136 years. If you need resolution beyond that, you need to use long, or at least make sure you pick your starting date appropriately.

UPDATE: To address your comments, you could store the time and then calculate seconds like such:

long Ticks1 = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(-10).Ticks;
long Ticks2 = DateTime.Now.Ticks;
TimeSpan elapsedTime = TimeSpan.FromTicks(Ticks2 - Ticks1);