Function for formatting a timespan with optional trailing zero I'm looking to achieve a time format that looks like this: 2d 4h remaining; or 1h 36m remaining; or 35s remaining, etc. So that it only displays the two largest values of time (this is how Clash of Clans and some other mobile games format wait times.)

I would like to format the wait time value as simply 5h or 5h 0m depending on whether I am displaying the total wait time or currently counting down. My code is below… But is there a slightly simpler way of writing it without so many returns?

(This question was originally asked here:
Is there a simpler way to format this timespan? )

public string FormatRushTime ( System.TimeSpan span, boolean removeZeros )
{
    if ( span.Days &gt; 0 )
    {
        if ( span.Hours &gt; 0 || !removeZeros )
            return String.Format("{0:d}d {1:d}h", span.Days, span.Hours);
        else
            return String.Format("{0:d}d", span.Days);
    }
    if ( span.Hours &gt; 0 )
    {
        if ( span.Minutes &gt; 0 || !removeZeros )
            return String.Format("{0:h}h {1:m}m", span.Hours, span.Minutes);
        else
            return String.Format("{0:h}h", span.Hours);
    }
    if ( span.Minutes &gt; 0 )
    {
        if ( span.Seconds &gt; 0 || !removeZeros )
            return String.Format("{0:m}m {1:s}s", span.Minutes, span.Seconds);
        else
            return String.Format("{0:m}m", span.Minutes);
    }
    return String.Format("{0:d}s", span.Seconds);
}
If your goal is to reduce returns, you could use a single string.Format call and not make use of additional arguments in certain cases:

// Changed removeZeroes to includeZeroes since it read kind of like a double negative.
string format = includeZeros ? "{0:d}d {1:d}h" : "{0:d}d";

// span.Hours will not get used if there's nowhere to put it in the format string:
return string.Format(format, span.Days, span.Hours);