I saw a viewo one time time where the following syntax is used in c#:
class A
{
DateTime CreationDate
{
get;
set => backing = value.Date;
}
}
The main thing is the backing keyword, of backfiled, I do not remember exactly. Is there something similar in C#? And when yes, in which version? Unfortunately I could not found it any C# reference document.
Update based on comments
The following sample is working, But I do not want to create the backing field my own. I want to reach the backing field, which the compiler created.
class A
{
DateTime CreationDate
{
get;
set => backing = value.Date;
}
private DateTime backing;
}
This could be the following, so for. But in C# 11, this may change:
internal class A
{
private DateTime _creationDate;
public DateTime CreationDate
{
get
{
return this._creationDate;
}
set
{
this._creationDate = value.Date;
}
}
}
Properties can be used with expression-bodied members:
class YourClass
{
private DateTime creationDate;
public DateTime CreationDate
{
get => this.creationDate;
set => this.creationDate = value.Date;
}
}
This looks almost like your code, except for the additional body in the getter implementation.
The this, of course, is optional, so it becomes even more alike to the code from your question:
class YourClass
{
private DateTime creationDate;
public DateTime CreationDate
{
get => creationDate;
set => creationDate = value.Date;
}
}
Differences: get; becomes get => creationDate; (added arrow and backing field) and set backing = value.Date; becomes set => creationDate = value.Date; (added arrow and changed name of backing field)
I've read a bunch about auto implemented properties but I still don't quite get it. I have and entity:
public class News
{
public int NewsId { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public string Content { get; set; }
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
}
Now I don't want the user to set date himself every time a new entity of News type is created. I want the record to be saved automatically with the datetime it's created. Thinking about it I suggest that it's enough to just modify the set for my property to something like :
public DateTime Date
{
get;
set
{
Date = DateTime.Now;
}
}
But reading about the topic I saw that the standard way is to create private variable and use it instead in the implementation. That's where I get a little bit lost.
private DateTime _date = null;
public DateTime Date
{
Well I'm not sure for the getter and setter implementations. It seems reasonable to have something like : set { _date = DateTime.Now;} and I have no idea how to deal with the get part since I want this data to be fetched from the database so something like : get {return _date;} doesn't make much sense to me even though almost every example with auto implementedset` returns the private variable. But I think that if the property is an entity this is not making a lot of sense.
Some ways to return the current date:
public DateTime Date { get { return DateTime.Now; } }
or
public class News
{
public News()
{
Date = DateTime.Now;
}
public DateTime Date { get; private set; }
}
The first one will always return the current date/time, even if that instance was created some time ago. The second one will return the date/time the instance was created. Both prevent the user from setting that Date value.
You could add a constructor to your class and then initialize there your property.
public class News
{
// properties goes here
public News()
{
Date=DateTime.Now;
}
}
A far better constructor would be the following
public News(int newsId, string title, string content)
{
NewsId=newsId;
Title=title;
Content=content;
Date=DateTime.Now;
}
That way you could create an object of type News in a single line of code.
News news = new News(1,"title1","whatever");
Don't touch the getter and setter! They are auto generated from a template and will be overridden every once and a while. Instead, as you might have noticed the generated entities are declared partially, create a partial class and declare a constructor there that sets the _date or Date of you r entity to DateTime.Now on construction (just as you desired).
public partial class News
{
public News()
{
this.Date = DateTime.Now;
}
}
I am attempting to move validation of input data into the get;set; of a class struct.
public void PlotFiles()
{
List<DTVitem.item> dataitems;
DTVitem.item i;
DateTime.TryParse("2012/01/01", out i.dt);
DateTime.TryParse("04:04:04", out i.t);
int.TryParse("455", out i.v);
dataitems.Add(i);
}
The struct is declared in a separate class (probably unnecessary):
public partial class DTVitem
{
public struct item
{
public DateTime dt;
public DateTime t;
public int v;
}
}
Every time I set DTVitem.item.dt, DTVitem.item.t, or DTVitem.item.v, I wish it to perform the relevant .TryParse() to validate the property contents.
However, when I attempt to use TryParse() as follows (attempting to wrap my head around this example from MSDN):
public partial class DTVitem
{
private DateTime _datevalue;
public string dt
{
get { return _datevalue; }
set { DateTime.TryParse(value, out _datevalue) ;}
}
}
I receive the error that _datevalue is a DateTime and cannot be converted to a string. The reason is obviously that the return path must return the type of dt in this instance (a string). However, I have attempted to massage this a few different ways, and am not able to hack it.
How do I achieve my goal of validating a string value as a DateTime when setting it as a property of an instance of the struct?
Is using set as I am attempting to the best way?
I can see that there is a lot of value in using get;set; for validation and would really like to understand it.
Thanks very much,
Matt
[edit]
Thanks to Jon Skeet below for pointing out the err of my ways.
Here's another thread on problems with mutable structs, and another speaking about instantiating a struct. Note structs are value types.
I believe the rest of what he was pointing out is sort of just agreeing that burying the struct way far away isn't necessary, and I should review why I'm doing it.
[solution]
I've taken into account some recommendations below and come up with the following:
public partial class DTVitem
{
private DateTime _dtvalue, _tvalue;
private int _vvalue;
public string dt
{
get { return _dtvalue.ToString(); }
set { DateTime.TryParse(value, out _dtvalue); }
}
public string t
{
get { return _tvalue.ToString(); }
set { DateTime.TryParse(value, out _tvalue); }
}
public string v
{
get { return _vvalue.ToString(); }
set { int.TryParse(value, out _vvalue); }
}
}
Inside my program class, I've instantiated and set with the following:
DTVitem item = new DTVitem();
item.dt = "2012/01/01";
item.t = "04:04:04";
item.v = "455";
So I opted not to use a struct, but a class; or really an instance of the class.
A property can only have one type. If you want the property to be of type string, then you can implement it this way:
public partial class DTVitem
{
private DateTime _datevalue;
public string dt
{
get { return _datevalue.ToString(); }
set { DateTime.TryParse(value, out _datevalue) ;}
}
}
However, using TryParse() will mean that the setter will not throw an exception if the DateTime is invalid. If you want it to do this, use DateTime.Parse() instead.
public partial class DTVitem
{
private DateTime _datevalue;
public string dt
{
get { return _datevalue.ToString(); }
set { DateTime.TryParse(value, out _datevalue) ;}
}
}
You're just missing a type convertion in the get. _datevalue is a DateTime but your property's a string.
get { return _datevalue.ToString(); } //or .toShortDateString() or ToShorttimeString()
The get;set; must have the same type. Your get returns a datetime when it expects a string, hence the error.
just use an explicit method bool setDate(String datestring) and put your code there. You can return a bool from the tryparse to let you know if it was successful.
Other (design mostly) issues aside, just getting to the problem of returning _datevalue as string, you can simply do something like:
public string dt
{
get { return _datevalue.ToString(); }
set { if(!DateTime.TryParse(value, out _datevalue)) /* Error recovery!! */ ;}
}
>>> You may also want to check the docs for DateTime.ToString() and see what format you want to get your string in when accessing the property.
I'm xml-serializing a object with a large number of properties and I have two properties with DateTime types. I'd like to format the dates for the serialized output. I don't really want to implement the IXmlSerializable interface and overwrite the serialization for every property. Is there any other way to achieve this?
(I'm using C#, .NET 2)
Thanks.
For XML serialization you would have to implement IXmlSerializable and not ISerializable.
However you can workaround this by using a helper property and by marking the DateTime properties with the XmlIgnore attribute.
public class Foo
{
[XmlIgnore]
public DateTime Bar { get; set; }
public string BarFormatted
{
get { return this.Bar.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy"); }
set { this.Bar = DateTime.ParseExact(value, "dd-MM-yyyy", null); }
}
}
You can use a wrapper class/struct for DateTime that overrides ToString method.
public struct CustomDateTime
{
private readonly DateTime _date;
public CustomDateTime(DateTime date)
{
_date = date;
}
public override string ToString()
{
return _date.ToString("custom format");
}
}
Does any one know how I can specify the Default value for a DateTime property using the System.ComponentModel DefaultValue Attribute?
for example I try this:
[DefaultValue(typeof(DateTime),DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"))]
public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; }
And it expects the value to be a constant expression.
This is in the context of using with ASP.NET Dynamic Data. I do not want to scaffold the DateCreated column but simply supply the DateTime.Now if it is not present. I am using the Entity Framework as my Data Layer
Cheers.
You cannot do this with an attribute because they are just meta information generated at compile time. Just add code to the constructor to initialize the date if required, create a trigger and handle missing values in the database, or implement the getter in a way that it returns DateTime.Now if the backing field is not initialized.
public DateTime DateCreated
{
get
{
return this.dateCreated.HasValue
? this.dateCreated.Value
: DateTime.Now;
}
set { this.dateCreated = value; }
}
private DateTime? dateCreated = null;
Add below to the DateTime property
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Computed)]
I have tested this on EF core 2.1
Here you cannot use either Conventions or Data Annotations. You must use the Fluent API.
class MyContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<Blog> Blogs { get; set; }
protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
modelBuilder.Entity<Blog>()
.Property(b => b.Created)
.HasDefaultValueSql("getdate()");
}
}
Official doc
There's no reason I can come up with that it shouldn't be possible to do through an attribute. It might be in Microsoft's backlog. Who knows.
The best solution I have found is to use the defaultValueSql parameter in the code first migration.
CreateTable(
"dbo.SomeTable",
c => new
{
TheDateField = c.DateTime(defaultValueSql: "GETDATE()")
});
I don't like the often reference solution of setting it in the entity class constructor because if anything other than Entity Framework sticks a record in that table, the date field won't get a default value. And the idea of using a trigger to handle that case just seems wrong to me.
It is possible and quite simple:
for DateTime.MinValue
[System.ComponentModel.DefaultValue(typeof(DateTime), "")]
for any other value as last argument of DefaultValueAttribute specify string that represent desired DateTime value.
This value must be constant expression and is required to create object (DateTime) using TypeConverter.
Just found this looking for something different, but in the new C# version, you can use an even shorter version for that:
public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; } = DateTime.Now;
A simple solution if you are using the Entity Framework is the add a partical class and define a constructor for the entity as the framework does not define one. For example if you have an entity named Example you would put the following code in a seperate file.
namespace EntityExample
{
public partial class Example : EntityObject
{
public Example()
{
// Initialize certain default values here.
this._DateCreated = DateTime.Now;
}
}
}
I think the easiest solution is to set
Created DATETIME2 NOT NULL DEFAULT GETDATE()
in column declaration and in VS2010 EntityModel designer set corresponding column property StoreGeneratedPattern = Computed.
Creating a new attribute class is a good suggestion. In my case, I wanted to specify 'default(DateTime)' or 'DateTime.MinValue' so that the Newtonsoft.Json serializer would ignore DateTime members without real values.
[JsonProperty( DefaultValueHandling = DefaultValueHandling.Ignore )]
[DefaultDateTime]
public DateTime EndTime;
public class DefaultDateTimeAttribute : DefaultValueAttribute
{
public DefaultDateTimeAttribute()
: base( default( DateTime ) ) { }
public DefaultDateTimeAttribute( string dateTime )
: base( DateTime.Parse( dateTime ) ) { }
}
Without the DefaultValue attribute, the JSON serializer would output "1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM" even though the DefaultValueHandling.Ignore option was set.
Simply consider setting its value in the constructor of your entity class
public class Foo
{
public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; }
public Foo()
{
DateCreated = DateTime.Now;
}
}
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Computed)]
public DateTime CreatedOn { get; private set; }
I needed a UTC Timestamp as a default value and so modified Daniel's solution like this:
[Column(TypeName = "datetime2")]
[XmlAttribute]
[DisplayFormat(ApplyFormatInEditMode = true, DataFormatString = "{0:yyyy-MM-dd}")]
[Display(Name = "Date Modified")]
[DateRange(Min = "1900-01-01", Max = "2999-12-31")]
public DateTime DateModified {
get { return dateModified; }
set { dateModified = value; }
}
private DateTime dateModified = DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime();
For DateRangeAttribute tutorial, see this awesome blog post
There is a way. Add these classes:
DefaultDateTimeValueAttribute.cs
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
using Custom.Extensions;
namespace Custom.DefaultValueAttributes
{
/// <summary>
/// This class's DefaultValue attribute allows the programmer to use DateTime.Now as a default value for a property.
/// Inspired from https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/A-flexible-Default-Value-11c2db19.
/// </summary>
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property)]
public sealed class DefaultDateTimeValueAttribute : DefaultValueAttribute
{
public string DefaultValue { get; set; }
private object _value;
public override object Value
{
get
{
if (_value == null)
return _value = GetDefaultValue();
return _value;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Initialized a new instance of this class using the desired DateTime value. A string is expected, because the value must be generated at runtime.
/// Example of value to pass: Now. This will return the current date and time as a default value.
/// Programmer tip: Even if the parameter is passed to the base class, it is not used at all. The property Value is overridden.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="defaultValue">Default value to render from an instance of <see cref="DateTime"/></param>
public DefaultDateTimeValueAttribute(string defaultValue) : base(defaultValue)
{
DefaultValue = defaultValue;
}
public static DateTime GetDefaultValue(Type objectType, string propertyName)
{
var property = objectType.GetProperty(propertyName);
var attribute = property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DefaultDateTimeValueAttribute), false)
?.Cast<DefaultDateTimeValueAttribute>()
?.FirstOrDefault();
return attribute.GetDefaultValue();
}
private DateTime GetDefaultValue()
{
// Resolve a named property of DateTime, like "Now"
if (this.IsProperty)
{
return GetPropertyValue();
}
// Resolve a named extension method of DateTime, like "LastOfMonth"
if (this.IsExtensionMethod)
{
return GetExtensionMethodValue();
}
// Parse a relative date
if (this.IsRelativeValue)
{
return GetRelativeValue();
}
// Parse an absolute date
return GetAbsoluteValue();
}
private bool IsProperty
=> typeof(DateTime).GetProperties()
.Select(p => p.Name).Contains(this.DefaultValue);
private bool IsExtensionMethod
=> typeof(DefaultDateTimeValueAttribute).Assembly
.GetType(typeof(DefaultDateTimeExtensions).FullName)
.GetMethods()
.Where(m => m.IsDefined(typeof(ExtensionAttribute), false))
.Select(p => p.Name).Contains(this.DefaultValue);
private bool IsRelativeValue
=> this.DefaultValue.Contains(":");
private DateTime GetPropertyValue()
{
var instance = Activator.CreateInstance<DateTime>();
var value = (DateTime)instance.GetType()
.GetProperty(this.DefaultValue)
.GetValue(instance);
return value;
}
private DateTime GetExtensionMethodValue()
{
var instance = Activator.CreateInstance<DateTime>();
var value = (DateTime)typeof(DefaultDateTimeValueAttribute).Assembly
.GetType(typeof(DefaultDateTimeExtensions).FullName)
.GetMethod(this.DefaultValue)
.Invoke(instance, new object[] { DateTime.Now });
return value;
}
private DateTime GetRelativeValue()
{
TimeSpan timeSpan;
if (!TimeSpan.TryParse(this.DefaultValue, out timeSpan))
{
return default(DateTime);
}
return DateTime.Now.Add(timeSpan);
}
private DateTime GetAbsoluteValue()
{
DateTime value;
if (!DateTime.TryParse(this.DefaultValue, out value))
{
return default(DateTime);
}
return value;
}
}
}
DefaultDateTimeExtensions.cs
using System;
namespace Custom.Extensions
{
/// <summary>
/// Inspired from https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/A-flexible-Default-Value-11c2db19. See usage for more information.
/// </summary>
public static class DefaultDateTimeExtensions
{
public static DateTime FirstOfYear(this DateTime dateTime)
=> new DateTime(dateTime.Year, 1, 1, dateTime.Hour, dateTime.Minute, dateTime.Second, dateTime.Millisecond);
public static DateTime LastOfYear(this DateTime dateTime)
=> new DateTime(dateTime.Year, 12, 31, dateTime.Hour, dateTime.Minute, dateTime.Second, dateTime.Millisecond);
public static DateTime FirstOfMonth(this DateTime dateTime)
=> new DateTime(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month, 1, dateTime.Hour, dateTime.Minute, dateTime.Second, dateTime.Millisecond);
public static DateTime LastOfMonth(this DateTime dateTime)
=> new DateTime(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month, DateTime.DaysInMonth(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month), dateTime.Hour, dateTime.Minute, dateTime.Second, dateTime.Millisecond);
}
}
And use DefaultDateTimeValue as an attribute to your properties. Value to input to your validation attribute are things like "Now", which will be rendered at run time from a DateTime instance created with an Activator. The source code is inspired from this thread: https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/A-flexible-Default-Value-11c2db19. I changed it to make my class inherit with DefaultValueAttribute instead of a ValidationAttribute.
I faced the same issue, but the one which works for me best is below:
public DateTime CreatedOn { get; set; } = DateTime.Now;
In C# Version 6 it's possible to provide a default value
public DateTime fieldname { get; set; } = DateTime.Now;
Using EntityTypeConfiguration, I get it like this:
public class UserMap : IEntityTypeConfiguration<User>
{
public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<User> builder)
{
//throw new NotImplementedException();
builder.Property(u => u.Id).ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
builder.Property(u => u.Name).IsRequired().HasMaxLength(100);
builder.HasIndex(u => u.Email).IsUnique();
builder.Property(u => u.Status).IsRequired();
builder.Property(u => u.Password).IsRequired();
builder.Property(u => u.Registration).HasDefaultValueSql("getdate()");
builder.HasMany(u => u.DrawUser).WithOne(u => u.User);
builder.ToTable("User");
}
}
Using the Fluent API, in OnModelCreating function in your Context class add following.
builder.Property(u => u.CreatedAt).ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
builder.Property(u => u.UpdatedAt).ValueGeneratedOnAddOrUpdate();
Note I'm using a separate type configuration class. If you did right in the function would be like:
builder.Enitity<User>().Property(u => u.CreatedAt).ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
public DateTime DateCreated
{
get
{
return (this.dateCreated == default(DateTime))
? this.dateCreated = DateTime.Now
: this.dateCreated;
}
set { this.dateCreated = value; }
}
private DateTime dateCreated = default(DateTime);
How you deal with this at the moment depends on what model you are using Linq to SQL or EntityFramework?
In L2S you can add
public partial class NWDataContext
{
partial void InsertCategory(Category instance)
{
if(Instance.Date == null)
Instance.Data = DateTime.Now;
ExecuteDynamicInsert(instance);
}
}
EF is a little more complicated see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc716714.aspx for more info on EF buisiness logic.
I know this post is a little old, but a have a suggestion that may help some.
I used an Enum to determine what to set in the attribute constructor.
Property declaration :
[DbProperty(initialValue: EInitialValue.DateTime_Now)]
public DateTime CreationDate { get; set; }
Property constructor :
Public Class DbProperty Inherits System.Attribute
Public Property InitialValue As Object
Public Sub New(ByVal initialValue As EInitialValue)
Select Case initialValue
Case EInitialValue.DateTime_Now
Me.InitialValue = System.DateTime.Now
Case EInitialValue.DateTime_Min
Me.InitialValue = System.DateTime.MinValue
Case EInitialValue.DateTime_Max
Me.InitialValue = System.DateTime.MaxValue
End Select
End Sub
End Class
Enum :
Public Enum EInitialValue
DateTime_Now
DateTime_Min
DateTime_Max
End Enum
I think you can do this using StoreGeneratedPattern = Identity (set in the model designer properties window).
I wouldn't have guessed that would be how to do it, but while trying to figure it out I noticed that some of my date columns were already defaulting to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() and some weren't. Checking the model, I see that the only difference between the two columns besides the name is that the one getting the default value has StoreGeneratedPattern set to Identity.
I wouldn't have expected that to be the way, but reading the description, it sort of makes sense:
Determines if the corresponding column in the database will be auto-generated during insert and update operations.
Also, while this does make the database column have a default value of "now", I guess it does not actually set the property to be DateTime.Now in the POCO. This hasn't been an issue for me as I have a customized .tt file that already sets all of my date columns to DateTime.Now automatically (it's actually not hard to modify the .tt file yourself, especially if you have ReSharper and get a syntax highlighting plugin. (Newer versions of VS may already syntax highlight .tt files, not sure.))
The issue for me was: how do I get the database column to have a default so that existing queries that omit that column will still work? And the above setting worked for that.
I haven't tested it yet but it's also possible that setting this will interfere with setting your own explicit value. (I only stumbled upon this in the first place because EF6 Database First wrote the model for me this way.)
below works in .NET 5.0
private DateTime _DateCreated= DateTime.Now;
public DateTime DateCreated
{
get
{
return this._DateCreated;
}
set { this._DateCreated = value; }
}
You can also consider using the DatabaseGenerated attribute, example
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; }
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/modeling/generated-properties?tabs=data-annotations
I also wanted this and came up with this solution (I'm only using the date part - a default time makes no sense as a PropertyGrid default):
public class DefaultDateAttribute : DefaultValueAttribute {
public DefaultDateAttribute(short yearoffset)
: base(DateTime.Now.AddYears(yearoffset).Date) {
}
}
This just creates a new attribute that you can add to your DateTime property.
E.g. if it defaults to DateTime.Now.Date:
[DefaultDate(0)]