Track Elapsed Time in VB.NET

Here's a very simple but effective solution for capturing elapsed time within a vb.net program.

The following sample assumes you are working within a Windows Form context. This is the "code behind" processing for some event that has been initiated within your form for which you want to capture Elapsed Time. A label "lblElapsedTime" has been created on the form and will be used to display the elapsed time value as the program runs.

Environment: VB.NET, Visual Studio 2005, .NET 2.0

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'Two Variable declarations are needed: StartTime and ElapsedTime

dim StartTime as DateTime
dim ElapsedTime as TimeSpan

'Set the StartTime at the begin of the processing
' for which you want to capture ElapsedTime
StartTime = Now

'Begin your processing (let's assume it is some sort of  looping logic)
'replace the following "For" loop with whatever
' looping construct suits your needs

For each x as integer in y

    'Insert some processing here (or call to another routine)
    '  that will consume some time
    'your code here
    'Capture the Elapsed Time here as follows
    ElapsedTime = Now().Subtract(StartTime)
    'Now we will report the output to a Windows Form label
    'display format is Hours:Minutes:Seconds
    lblElapsedTime.Text = String.Format("Elapsed Time : {0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}",_
        CInt(ElapsedTime.TotalHours), _
        CInt(ElapsedTime.TotalMinutes) Mod 60, _
        CInt(ElapsedTime.TotalSeconds) Mod 60)
    'Force the Windows Form to refresh and display the elapsed time
    Me.Refresh()
Next

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