Is there a high resolution (microsecond, nanosecond) DateTime object available for the CLR?

Question

I have an instrument that stores timestamps the microsecond level, and I need to store those timestamps as part of collecting information from the instrument. Note that I do not need to generate timestamps; these time stamps are pre-generated by the instrument itself using a high resolution real-time operating system. Parsing out these values is not an issue — they are stored using a standard format in UTC time. Originally I wanted to use the C# DateTime structure can only store time stamps up millisecond resolution.

Is there another object supplied with .NET or a common C# library that supports micro- and (ideally) nanosecond resolution timestamps, or am I going to have to roll my own?

Answer 1

You might be able to use DateTime after all. DateTime.Ticks' resolution is 100 nanoseconds. You can set the ticks with DateTime.AddTicks.

Answer 2

Looking at the answers, and the DateTime.Ticks property, it's possible to calculate Microseconds and Nanoseconds from the given values. As a result, I put together this extension method class to do it. (Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to use it given some other requirements, but other people may find it useful.)

/// <summary>
/// Extension methods for accessing Microseconds and Nanoseconds of a
/// DateTime object.
/// </summary>
public static class DateTimeExtensionMethods
{
   /// <summary>
   /// The number of ticks per microsecond.
   /// </summary>
   public const int TicksPerMicrosecond = 10;
   /// <summary>
   /// The number of ticks per Nanosecond.
   /// </summary>
   public const int NanosecondsPerTick = 100;

   /// <summary>
   /// Gets the microsecond fraction of a DateTime.
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="self"></param>
   /// <returns></returns>
   public static int Microseconds(this DateTime self)
   {
      return (int)Math.Floor(
         (self.Ticks 
         % TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond )
         / (double)TicksPerMicrosecond);
   }
   /// <summary>
   /// Gets the Nanosecond fraction of a DateTime.  Note that the DateTime
   /// object can only store nanoseconds at resolution of 100 nanoseconds.
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="self">The DateTime object.</param>
   /// <returns>the number of Nanoseconds.</returns>
   public static int Nanoseconds(this DateTime self)
   {
      return (int)(self.Ticks % TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond % TicksPerMicrosecond)
         * NanosecondsPerTick;
   }
   /// <summary>
   /// Adds a number of microseconds to this DateTime object.
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="self">The DateTime object.</param>
   /// <param name="microseconds">The number of milliseconds to add.</param>
   public static DateTime AddMicroseconds(this DateTime self, int microseconds)
   {
      return self.AddTicks(microseconds * TicksPerMicrosecond);
   }
   /// <summary>
   /// Adds a number of nanoseconds to this DateTime object.  Note: this
   /// object only stores nanoseconds of resolutions of 100 seconds.
   /// Any nanoseconds passed in lower than that will be rounded using
   /// the default rounding algorithm in Math.Round().
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="self">The DateTime object.</param>
   /// <param name="nanoseconds">The number of nanoseconds to add.</param>
   public static DateTime AddNanoseconds(this DateTime self, int nanoseconds)
   {
      return self.AddTicks((int)Math.Round(nanoseconds / (double)NanosecondsPerTick));
   }
}

This still won't let you set the Microseconds or Nanoseconds upon creation, but they can be added shortly after. It also doesn't give resolution better than what a DateTime can (eg, 1/10 of a microsecond aka 100 nanosecond resolution.)

DateTime time = new DateTime(year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec);
time = time.AddMicroseconds(microseconds);
time = time.AddNanoseconds(nanoseconds); # note: rounds if not enough added

Here's hoping this works for someone else!