The phrase "a long time and complex" is not entirely correct as it lacks a conjunction or a clearer structure to connect the two ideas.
You can use it when describing a situation or process that takes a significant amount of time and involves complexity, but it would be better to rephrase for clarity.
Example: "The project was a long time and complex, requiring extensive planning and resources."
Alternatives: "lengthy and complicated" or "time-consuming and intricate."
"The kinds of diagnostic tests that are traditionally used by doctors take a long time and are complex," explains Cassandra Kelly-Cirino, director of emerging threats at the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics.
But it takes both a long time and a complex combination of factors — often including some personal trauma, social stigma and government policy — to promote any real transformation, say those who have studied the matter.
Usually, inducing atherosclerosis in normal rats and mice using a high-lipid diet is difficult because (i) rodents must be treated for a long time and (ii) complex traits for atherosclerosis are influenced by genetic variation and by the type of diet the rodents are fed.
When anyone pops their head above the parapet – former permanent secretaries, ex-cabinet secretaries, the Institute for Government – and says this is going to take a long time and it's complex, they are immediately shot down and accused of betraying the will of the people.
I had to do that a long time, and so I understand how complex it is.
Readjustments requiring Wally's being declared un-dead, requiring divorcing, estate replanning, and updated survivorship provisos, all while recriminations cut the air like steak knives, and all lasting a long time and raking everybody's patience, politeness, and complex sense of themselves over the hot coals like spareribs.
Sir Robert's report concluded that some individual cases had "endured over such a long time, and the issues have become so complex, that the most rigorous inquiry devoted to each such case would not have been able to resolve matters for those involved".
It is also deeply buried (more than 7 km in the west, the north and the east), and has evolved for a long time with complex preservation conditions which inhibit exploration and development.
The clinical picture in patients who have had diabetes for a long time may be complex, with several complications appearing at the same time, perhaps affecting their ability to self-manage their diabetes.
Generally, it must take a long time for a large, complex system to develop to maturity, and this process is often gradual, with development being a quasi-stable process and having the following characteristics.
