How to Format DataGridView Cells after user input, also find average of Timespans

Question

I'm a rather new to programming and slowly learning as best I can, and feel that I'm probably just getting hung up on some things because of my lack of overall understanding.  I've searched plenty online and these forums to figure out my issues, but
somethings just go over my head or I can't figure out how to make it work for what I'm trying to do.
On to what I'm trying to do.
I'm working on building an app for scoring swim meets for our conference.  I'm using a lcal SQL DB for all of the data and have a DGV on my form.  We don't have timing systems so we take 2 times from stop watches and then need to do an average
of the times to determine a swimmers time.  I have 3 fields for times, Time1, Time2 and AvgTime.
What I'm needing help with is how do I allow the user to not worry about formatting the time they enter but have it automatically format what they input after they exit the cell on Time1 and Time2.  Then I need to have it figure out the average of those
two times in AvgTime cell.  I'm able to get the averaging to work if I have the datatype set to decimal or int, but I can't get it to work if I have them set has TimeSpan.
Below is the code I have currently.  As you can see I've got things commented out that I found online but couldn't make work.
Thanks for taking the time to review this and help me out.
Public Class EventScoring
Private Sub EventScoring_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
'TODO: This line of code loads data into the 'MeetDataSet.DualLineup' table. You can move, or remove it, as needed.
Me.DualLineupTableAdapter.Fill(Me.MeetDataSet.DualLineup)
'TODO: This line of code loads data into the 'MeetDataSet.EventList' table. You can move, or remove it, as needed.
Me.EventListTableAdapter.Fill(Me.MeetDataSet.EventList)
'DualLineupDataGridView.Columns(5).DefaultCellStyle.Format = ("mm\:ss\.ff")
MeetDataSet.DualLineup.Columns("AvgTime").Expression = "(([Time1] + [Time2]) /2)"
End Sub
Private Sub Sub_Btn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Sub_Btn.Click
Try
Me.Validate()
Me.DualLineupBindingSource.EndEdit()
Me.DualLineupTableAdapter.Update(Me.MeetDataSet.DualLineup)
MsgBox("Update successful")
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox("Update failed")
End Try
End Sub
'Private Sub DualLineupDataGridView_CellFormatting(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As DataGridViewCellFormattingEventArgs) Handles DualLineupDataGridView.CellFormatting
' If ((e.ColumnIndex = 5) AndAlso (Not IsDBNull(e.Value))) Then
' Dim tp As TimeSpan = CType(e.Value, TimeSpan)
' Dim dt As DateTime = New DateTime(tp.Ticks)
' e.Value = dt.ToString("mm\:ss\.ff")
' End If
'End Sub
'Private Sub DualLineupDataGridView_CurrentCellDirtyStateChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As DataGridViewCellFormattingEventArgs) Handles DualLineupDataGridView.CurrentCellDirtyStateChanged
' If ((e.ColumnIndex = 5) AndAlso (Not IsDBNull(e.Value))) Then
' Dim tp As TimeSpan = CType(e.Value, TimeSpan)
' Dim dt As DateTime = New DateTime(tp.Ticks)
' e.Value = dt.ToString("mm\:ss\.ff")
' End If
'End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

AB,
If you're ok with your database other than working out this issue with time, you might want to give the following a try. It's pretty flexible in that you can give it a string or a decimal, and I'll explain:
The string can be in the format of "mm:ss" (minutes and seconds) or in the format of "mm:ss:f~".
The reason that I put the tilda there is because you're not limited on the number of decimal places - it will work out the math to figure out what you meant.
Also though, you can give it a decimal value representing the total number of seconds. Do be sure to clearly denote that it's a decimal type (otherwise it will assume it's a double and will fail). Here's the class:
Public Class SwimmerTime
Private _totalSeconds As Decimal
Public Sub New(ByVal value As Object)
Try
Dim tSeconds As Decimal = 0
If TypeOf value Is String Then
Dim s As String = CType(value, String)
If Not s.Contains(":"c) Then
Throw New ArgumentException("The string is malformed and cannot be used.")
Else
Dim elements() As String = s.Split(":"c)
For Each element As String In elements
If Not Integer.TryParse(element, New Integer) Then
Throw New ArgumentException("The string is malformed and cannot be used.")
End If
Next
If elements.Length = 2 Then
tSeconds = (60 * CInt(elements(0)) + CInt(elements(1)))
ElseIf elements.Length = 3 Then
tSeconds = (60 * CInt(elements(0)) + CInt(elements(1)))
Dim divideByString As String = "1"
For Each c As Char In elements(2)
divideByString &= "0"
Next
tSeconds += CDec(elements(2)) / CInt(divideByString)
Else
Throw New ArgumentException("The string is malformed and cannot be used.")
End If
End If
ElseIf TypeOf value Is Decimal Then
Dim d As Decimal = DirectCast(value, Decimal)
tSeconds = d
Else
Throw New ArgumentException("The type was not recognizable and cannot be used.")
End If
If tSeconds = 0 Then
Throw New ArgumentOutOfRangeException("Total Seconds", "Must be greater than zero.")
Else
_totalSeconds = tSeconds
End If
Catch ex As Exception
Throw
End Try
End Sub
Public Shared Function GetAverage(ByVal value1 As Object, _
ByVal value2 As Object) As SwimmerTime
Dim retVal As SwimmerTime = Nothing
Try
Dim st1 As SwimmerTime = New SwimmerTime(value1)
Dim st2 As SwimmerTime = New SwimmerTime(value2)
If st1 IsNot Nothing AndAlso st2 IsNot Nothing Then
Dim tempList As New List(Of Decimal)
With tempList
.Add(st1.TotalSeconds)
.Add(st2.TotalSeconds)
End With
Dim averageSeconds As Decimal = tempList.Average
retVal = New SwimmerTime(averageSeconds)
End If
Catch ex As Exception
Throw
End Try
Return retVal
End Function
Public ReadOnly Property FormattedString As String
Get
Dim ts As TimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(_totalSeconds)
Return String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:000}", _
ts.Minutes, _
ts.Seconds, _
ts.Milliseconds)
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly Property TotalSeconds As Decimal
Get
Return _totalSeconds
End Get
End Property
End Class
I'll show how to use it by example:
Option Strict On
Option Explicit On
Option Infer Off
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles MyBase.Load
Try
Dim averageSwimmerTime As SwimmerTime = _
SwimmerTime.GetAverage("02:24:05", 145.3274D)
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Formatted String: {0}{1}Actual Value: {2}", _
averageSwimmerTime.FormattedString, vbCrLf, _
averageSwimmerTime.TotalSeconds), _
"Average Swimmer Time")
Stop
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("An error occurred:{0}{0}{1}", _
vbCrLf, ex.Message), "Program Error", _
MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Warning)
End Try
Stop
End Sub
End Class
An advantage here is that since it returns an instance of the class, you have access to the formatted string, and the actual decimal value.
I hope you find this helpful. :)
Still lost in code, just at a little higher level.