Re: Getting the date from a timespan - C# Discussion Boards

CCodeNewbie19-Mar-12 4:21

19-Mar-12 4:21

full(ish) code, I am inserting the data int a SQL db thus the "inprocs" stuff...

Process[] processlist = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (Process procs in processlist)
{
if (procs.ProcessName == "System")
    {
        insprocs.Parameters.Add("@PStart", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 30).Value = startTime.ToString();
    }
}

I am currently ToString-ing it for testing but that may/may not remain the case.

If you try to GetProcesses without separating out the "System" (and "Idle")process,even though it is a DateTime, you get the error "System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Unable to enumerate the process modules", probably because of the "System" process's starttime properties.

So I am running GetProcesses 3 times-
1) if ((procs.ProcessName != "Idle") && (procs.ProcessName != "System")) // get everything
2) if (procs.ProcessName == "System") // get everything except "MainModule.FileName" (unenumerable for the System process)
3) if (procs.ProcessName == "Idle") // get only ProcessID, ProcessName (I think I can get RAM in use but I am not sure yet)

Depending on how you manipulate the starttime value, you get different values.

BobJanova19-Mar-12 6:37

BobJanova

19-Mar-12 6:37

Process.StartTime is a DateTime. 'Manipulating' it means converting it into some other form that will give you a wrong answer. Now, according to Alan, on the System process this will give you a nonsense answer. That just means that Windows will not give you a sensible answer for that process (presumably because it's not a real process and various things in Windows internals are faking it). If you don't want that nonsense answer in your DB, then you need to use one of the other approaches to calculate a different value.

CCodeNewbie19-Mar-12 6:59

19-Mar-12 6:59

Yup, that's pretty much where I am at the moment too, at least until I can figure out the relationship between a known bootup time and the long st = procs.StartTime.ToFileTime().

I have gone back to this, but am struggling to work out how to make "stime" available;

long st = procs.StartTime.ToFileTime();
DateTime stDt = new DateTime(1601, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0).AddSeconds(st);
string stime = String.Empty;
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 86400000).ToString() + ",";
stime += Convert.ToInt32(Environment.TickCount / 3600000 % 24) + ",";
stime += Convert.ToInt32(Environment.TickCount / 120000 % 60) + ",";
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 1000 % 60); // yields 7,10,11,49
DateTime result = DateTime.Now - new TimeSpan(stime);

currently erroring with "System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format."

CCodeNewbie19-Mar-12 12:18

19-Mar-12 12:18

Hi Bob,

Other approach used..[^]... can't figure out why I get 2 different results though...

Thanks for all your time today Smile | :)

CCodeNewbie18-Mar-12 8:24

Since I can't reply to Luc's message

18-Mar-12 8:24

Hi Luc,

Tried you code like so

DateTime dt1 = DateTime.Now;
TimeSpan span = dt1 - procs.StartTime;
string text1 = span.Days + "d " + span.Hours + "h " + span.Minutes + "m " + span.Seconds + "s";
string text2 = span.ToString();

result - 150191d 18h 18m 21s

How am I supposed to translate that in to 10/03/2012 09:15:22 (which is the approximate process start time)?

CCodeNewbie18-Mar-12 10:00

Re: Since I can't reply to Luc's message

18-Mar-12 10:00

My bad, I meant to say Ticks are 100 nanosecond units.

TickCount becomes inaccurate (without conditional calculation) if the system is up for more than 24,9 days

To get system uptime I used this

DateTime Utime = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).AddSeconds(t);
string uptime = String.Empty;
uptime += (Environment.TickCount / 86400000).ToString() + "d";
uptime += (Environment.TickCount / 3600000 % 24) + "h";
uptime += (Environment.TickCount / 120000 % 60) + "m";
uptime += (Environment.TickCount / 1000 % 60) + "s";

Ravi Bhavnani18-Mar-12 18:03

Ravi Bhavnani

18-Mar-12 18:03

This bit of code will give you the system uptime regardless of how long the system has been running:

TimeSpan uptime = TimeSpan.Zero;
using (var ut = new PerformanceCounter("System", "System Up Time")) {
  ut.NextValue();
  uptime = TimeSpan.FromSeconds (ut.NextValue());
}

/ravi

My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536
Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware
ravib(at)ravib(dot)com

Alan N19-Mar-12 2:58

Alan N

19-Mar-12 2:58

The Windows "System" process has a StartTime value of 01/01/1601 00:00:00. It is what it is and there is nothing you can do to transform the value into the actual start time of the process.

You have to accept that Windows is not giving you the start time and assume that 01/01/1601 means "not available". If you want to assign a hypothetical start time corresponding to computer's boot time then do so, but be clear in your own mind that the calculation you do to get that has nothing to do with January 1, 1601.

Alan.

modified 19-Mar-12 9:10am.

CCodeNewbie19-Mar-12 3:06

19-Mar-12 3:06

Hi Alan,

I am aware of the unix epoch time value for Window's "System" process starttime but I have to disagree that it is 01/01/1601, that is just what it reports.

As I posted in my original question, if you do this

string stime = String.Empty;
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 86400000).ToString() + "d";
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 3600000 % 24) + "h";
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 120000 % 60) + "m";
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 1000 % 60) + "s";

you can get the amount of time that the process has been running. From that, a better coder than I could deduce the starttime by somehow converting the resultant stime string to a datetime then subtracting it from datetime.now.

Alan N19-Mar-12 3:54

Alan N

19-Mar-12 3:54

1) Unix time's epoch is 1/1/1970
2) 01/01/1601 is the epoch for Windows FileTime which is used by the operating system to report process start times. See for example the documentation for the win32 function GetProcessTimes[^].
3) I stand by my assertion that a reported process start time of 01/01/1601 is Windows way of telling you that it's not telling you.
4) Has this whole thread been about this?

private void Boot() {
  DateTime boot = DateTime.Now - TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(Environment.TickCount);
  Console.WriteLine("System started at {0}", boot);
}

Alan.

CCodeNewbie19-Mar-12 4:23

19-Mar-12 4:23

Hi,

4) No, I already have a way to get the system uptime, I would like to get a full listing of all processes and as much information as I can get for each process.

Will get back to you on the others.

BobJanova19-Mar-12 3:56

BobJanova

19-Mar-12 3:56

Well isn't that strange.

Okay, Environment.TickCount it is, but that resets every 2³² ms, so that's not really useful either.

Bind Multi dimension array with datagrid

Alan N19-Mar-12 4:26

Alan N

19-Mar-12 4:26

Ravi's answer gives the proper way to do it using a performance counter, thus avoiding the Int32.MaxValue problem.

Also see GetTickCount[^] for some useful info.

Alan.

Dhira Kumar17-Mar-12 0:23

Dhira Kumar

17-Mar-12 0:23

Hello,

can any one tell me how can i bind multidimension array with datalgrid.

Re: Bind Multi dimension array with datagrid

Richard MacCutchan17-Mar-12 1:37

Richard MacCutchan

17-Mar-12 1:37

The first link here[^] is a CodeProject article.

Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman

Re: Bind Multi dimension array with datagrid

Dean Oliver18-Mar-12 19:50

Dean Oliver

18-Mar-12 19:50

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/436731/can-i-bind-multidimensional-data-to-a-datagridview-in-c-sharp-and-net[^]

C# Programming

Member 873573616-Mar-12 19:33

Member 8735736

16-Mar-12 19:33

Hello C# Experts, can you please read this and reply.......?
I would like to make a basic video downloader. Looking for advice from the experts. Please advice and assist me.........Thannks.

Richard MacCutchan16-Mar-12 22:26

Richard MacCutchan

16-Mar-12 22:26

Member 8735736 wrote:
I would like to make a basic video downloader.

This is a very broad question that cannot be easily answered in a forum like this. Take a look at the articles[^] section, or try some Google searches to get some ideas and sample code.

Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman

Member 873573617-Mar-12 5:10

Member 8735736

17-Mar-12 5:10

Thank you. I thought there are many experts and would be able to get someone straight from here. Smile | :)

Richard MacCutchan17-Mar-12 5:42

Richard MacCutchan

17-Mar-12 5:42

Read How to get an answer to your question[^], especially point 2.

Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman

Wes Aday17-Mar-12 5:56

Wes Aday

17-Mar-12 5:56

Member 8735736 wrote:
get someone straight from here

You just did.

Why is common sense not common?
Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level where they are an expert.
Sometimes it takes a lot of work to be lazy
Individuality is fine, as long as we do it together - F. Burns

Dave Kreskowiak17-Mar-12 8:23

Dave Kreskowiak

17-Mar-12 8:23

You did. The problem is no the lack of "experts" seeing your question.

The problem is that your question is so broad and requires an answer so large that it won't fit in a few forum posts.

The quality of the answer you get is directly dictated by the quality of your question.

BTW, using a downloader on sites like YouTube, or pretty much any other, is a violation of their terms of service. You are basically stealing their content and can be arrested for doing so.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]

Dave Kreskowiak