How to create a digital clock in CSharp using Visual Studio

In this project we will be building a digital clock in C# using Visual Studio. By the end of this project we will have very simple digital clock that you can enhance and upgrade on your own.

Requirement

To create a digital clock we will need Timer which will help us in updating the time every second.

How to create a Timer?

To create a Timer in C# we have to write

Timer t = new Timer();

Interval

After we have our timer t, we need to set the timer interval to 1 second which is 1000 millisecond.

t.Interval = 1000;

In short, this means our timer will tick after every 1000 milliseconds (1sec).

Event Handler

After the interval is set, we need an event handler that will execute some code every second.
For this we will need a method.

private void t_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

}

This method will execute every 1 second. It will hold the code for our Digital clock.

One last thing

Now we need to add the event handler method t_Tick to our timer t. For this we will write

t.Tick += new EventHandler(this.t_Tick);

How to start timer?

Well its pretty easy! Just write

t.Start();

Form1.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace DigitalClock
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        Timer t = new Timer();

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //timer interval
            t.Interval = 1000;  //in milliseconds

            t.Tick += new EventHandler(this.t_Tick);

            //start timer when form loads
            t.Start();  //this will use t_Tick() method
        }

        //timer eventhandler
        private void t_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //get current time
            int hh = DateTime.Now.Hour;
            int mm = DateTime.Now.Minute;
            int ss = DateTime.Now.Second;

            //time
            string time = "";

            //padding leading zero
            if (hh < 10)
            {
                time += "0" + hh;
            }
            else
            {
                time += hh;
            }
            time += ":";

            if (mm < 10)
            {
                time += "0" + mm;
            }
            else
            {
                time += mm;
            }
            time += ":";

            if (ss < 10)
            {
                time += "0" + ss;
            }
            else
            {
                time += ss;
            }

            //update label
            label1.Text = time;
        }
    }
}

Form1.Designer.cs

namespace DigitalClock
{
    partial class Form1
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param>
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.label1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // label1
            // 
            this.label1.AutoSize = true;
            this.label1.Font = new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif", 48F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, ((byte)(0)));
            this.label1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 9);
            this.label1.Name = "label1";
            this.label1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(284, 73);
            this.label1.TabIndex = 0;
            this.label1.Text = "00:00:00";
            // 
            // Form1
            // 
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(305, 97);
            this.Controls.Add(this.label1);
            this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.FixedSingle;
            this.MaximizeBox = false;
            this.Name = "Form1";
            this.StartPosition = System.Windows.Forms.FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;
            this.Text = "Digital Clock";
            this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.Form1_Load);
            this.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.PerformLayout();

        }

        #endregion

        private System.Windows.Forms.Label label1;
    }
}