Get only the Date without Time from DateTime - c#

i came across a situation that, i need to get only the Date out from DateTime.
i am having a DateTime? StartDate property (Nullable) used to hold the date value
i tried below,
var d = Convert.ToDateTime(StartDate).Date;
but its returning me d as eg. 6/22/2006 12:00:00AM
after doing var d = Convert.ToDateTime(StartDate).Date.ToString("d");
i'm able to get d as 6/22/2006..but i dont want to convert my DateTime? to String
is their any way to get only the Date without using the ToString("d")?

Use the Date property to get the Date component of DateTime instance:
DateTime dateTimeNow = DateTime.Now;
DateTime datePartOnly = dateTimeNow.Date; // Return 00/00/0000 00:00:00
With this approach, Date property will return the date at midnight. So the time part will be 00:00:00 in this case.
There are couple of alternate ways to get the just the Date part, but the return type of it will be a string:
1.) Using .ToString(string? format) where format can be standard or custom format string
string dateOnlyString = dateTimeNow.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy");
//Can also use .ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
2.) Using .ToShortDateString() to return a culture sensitive date string
string dateOnlyString = dateTimeNow.ToShortDateString();
//Returns M/d/yyyy for "en-US" culture
//Returns yyyy/M/d for "ja-JP" culture
Reference: here.

try this:
string x = DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString().
this will get the date dd/mm/yy given to the string x.

I think you question is sort of... moot.
You ask for a date without a time, but get a DateTime, which has both. I really don't think that should be a problem in most cases though:
If you create a DateTime with a certain date, and compare it to another date, and both of these have their time set to midnight, your comparisons will be valid and correct. Eg:
var yesterday = new DateTime(2014, 3, 10);
var today = new DateTime(2014, 3, 11);
var tomorrow = new DateTime(2014, 3, 12);
Comparing and sorting these will work as you expect, and so will the following:
if(today == DateTime.Today){
Console.WriteLine("Today is the day!");
}
In other words, you should be perfectly fine just pretending like the time-part does not exist.
Also, as you touched upon yourself in the OP, you can use the property Date if you want to make sure to avoid any time-component:
// Note the addition of hours, minutes and seconds:
var today = new DateTime(2014, 3, 11, 14, 35, 33);
if(today == DateTime.Today){
Console.WriteLine("This never happened...");
}
if(today.Date == DateTime.Today){
Console.WriteLine("...But today is still the day!");
}

In C# 10 you can use DateOnly.
DateOnly date = DateOnly.FromDateTime(DateTime.Now);

A DateTime does have both a date and a time. You can decide with yourself that in a specific property you well never use the date part. It will just be 12:00 AM, but you won't use it.
In some situations it can be useful to write your own type that can never hold a time-of-day component. Here is a start:
struct Date : IFormattable
{
readonly DateTime value;
public Date(DateTime dateAndTime)
{
value = dateAndTime.Date;
}
public string ToString(string format, IFormatProvider formatProvider)
{
return value.ToString(format ?? "d", formatProvider);
}
public string ToString(string format)
{
return ToString(format, null);
}
public string ToString(IFormatProvider formatProvider)
{
return ToString(null, formatProvider);
}
public override string ToString()
{
return ToString(null, null);
}
public static implicit operator DateTime(Date date)
{
return date.value;
}
}
The field value does hold the 12 AM thing, but it is private and is not seen from the outside. The overloads of ToString() make sure that unless something else is requested, the Date is written out with the short date format of the current culture.

Related

Cannot convert date into specific format

I'm trying to convert a Date into a specific format, I saw a lot of questions here with the same target but all the proposed solutions return a string, I need to return a DateTime in my custom format.
This is my code:
private DateTime? _matchCalendarDate = DateTime.Now;
public DateTime? MatchCalendarDate
{
get
{
var date = _matchCalendarDate.Value.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
var c = DateTime.ParseExact(date, "dd-MM-yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return c;
}
set
{
_matchCalendarDate = value;
OnPropertyChanged();
}
}
this return: 8/15/2018 12:00:00 AM but should return 15/08/2018
When you say it returns 8/15/2018 12:00:00 AM, I'm guessing you're simply calling ToString() on the property, like so:
MatchCalendarDate.ToString();
The thing is, a DateTime object doesn't have it's own inherent 'format'. It's format is whatever you want it to be.
So when you actually use the property to print the value it returns, you can choose how you want it do be displayed.
Something like;
MatchCalendarDate.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
But then, that essentially renders the conversion in your property redundant. So assuming your intention is to store a DateTime object, but retrieve it in the format you like, what you should do is declare a second string property that does the conversion for you.
Return matchCalendarDate.Date; returns the date component, time set to zero
You may have to consider converting to the original format first then to your required format
private DateTimeDateTime _matchCalendarDate, _matchCalendarD = DateTime.Now;
public DateTime MatchCalendarDate
{
get
{
var date = _matchCalendarDate.Value.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
var dt = DateTime.ParseExact(date, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
var c = dt.ToString("dd/M/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
return c;
}
set
{
_matchCalendarDate = value;
OnPropertyChanged();
}
}

How do I convert a DateTime variable to return date in the 'mm/dd/yy' format

private DateTime OrderDate;
OrderDate = Convert.ToDateTime("05/20/15")
How do I assign the above OrderDate variable a value of 05/20/15.
I tried using Convert.ToDateTime, but it seems to work for yyyy format but not yy.
You will want to create a new date time object and assign it to the property.
OrderDate = new DateTime(2015, 5, 20);
To assign it, you would use OrderDate = new DateTime(2015, 5, 20);
When displaying the value the .Net Framework will use the local culture or your machine.
If you want to use a different display format, (without changing the culture) you can use String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yy}", OrderDate)
You can't, Unless you change the date string to the correct format, it cannot guess which millennium you are reffering.
or you can take each part of the date sepretly and pass it in the constructor:
OrderDate = new DateTime(2015, 5, 20);
You can use DateTime.ParseExact to achieve this
DateTime OrderDate = DateTime.ParseExact("05/20/15", "MM/dd/yy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
I would use DateTime.TryParseExact:
DateTime time;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact("05/20/15", "MM/dd/yy", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out time))
{
do something ...
}
Lots of info about converting/formatting dates you can find here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1(v=vs.110).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
I guess in particular you need this example:
MSDN snippet:
public class Example
{
public static void Main()
{
string[] dateValues = { "30-12-2011", "12-30-2011",
"30-12-11", "12-30-11" };
string pattern = "MM-dd-yy";
DateTime parsedDate;
foreach (var dateValue in dateValues) {
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateValue, pattern, null,
DateTimeStyles.None, out parsedDate))
Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1:d}.",
dateValue, parsedDate);
else
Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}' to a date and time.",
dateValue);
}
}
}
// The example displays the following output:
// Unable to convert '30-12-2011' to a date and time.
// Unable to convert '12-30-2011' to a date and time.
// Unable to convert '30-12-11' to a date and time.
// Converted '12-30-11' to 12/30/2011.

Converting a year string i.e. '2005' to a Datetime value

I am creating a simple input form to create an account. On the form there is an input field for the year the company was founded, this is a simple textbox where the user will type in the year i.e. 2005.
However on attempting to insert this to the database field which is a datetime an error is being thrown despite converting the textbox entry to datetime...
myCompanyAccount.Founded = Convert.ToDateTime(this.TxtCompanyFounded.Text);
Is there a way in which i can can convert a year input i.e. 2005 to a datetime so it can be inserted to the database...? Thanks in advance!
It happens just because 2005 is not a standart date and time format and that's the reason Convert.ToDateTime will fail.
You can use DateTime.TryParseExact or DateTime.ParseExact methods instead to parse your custom date and time like;
string s = "2005";
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParseExact(s, "yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
Console.WriteLine(dt);
}
dt will be 01/01/2005 00:00:00 (of course it's representation depends on your current culture in .ToString() method)
Here a demonstration.
You should create a new DateTime and just enter default days / months if you don't need them, for example:
MyCompany.Founded = new DateTime(Convert.ToInt32(this.TxtCompanyFounded.Text), 1, 1);
use
myCompanyAccount.Founded = new DateTime(int.parse(TxtCompanyFounded.Text), 1, 1)
this will insert a date of 1 january + year
You cannot convert a string or int to datetime..So you have to format it like a date..Try this..
int year=convert.toint32(TxtCompanyFounded.Text);
DateTime Date= new DateTime(year, 1, 1);
If the user can only enter a year, consider simply:
var date = Convert.ToDateTime(str + "-01-01");
It's not the "cleanest" but it will do the trick (FSVO) - however, maybe the database column should just be a YEAR and not a DATETIME?
Do something like this in insert query,
Insert into table (starteddate) values (Convert.ToDateTime('"+TextBox1.Text+"'))
You can use DateTime.TryParseExact, providing a list of all the formats you want to accept.
E.g.:
string[] validFormats = new[] {
"yyyy",
"MM/yyyy",
"MM/dd/yyyy"
};
DateTime result;
var success = DateTime.TryParseExact("2005", validFormats,
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out result);
You use:
myCompanyAccount.Founded =
DateTime.ParseExact(this.TxtCompanyFounded.Text, "yyyy", null);
or more securely:
DateTime result;
bool canParse = DateTime.TryParseExact(this.TxtCompanyFounded.Text,
"yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out result);
if (canParse)
{
myCompanyAccount.Founded = result;
}
else
{
// take care of problematic input
}

Using ToString on a DateTime object

In my database the date is stored like datetime but when I want to perform a search/filtering I want it to be based only on the date ignoring the exact time. I spend a lot of time figuring out how to do it and finally I got a working solution on my own :
string val = rule.Data;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(val))
{
switch (rule.Field)
{
case "Date": {
DateTime parsedDate = DateTime.ParseExact(
val,
"dd/MM/yyyy",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
var pYear = parsedDate.Year;
var pMonth = parsedDate.Month;
var pDay = parsedDate.Day;
rows = rows.Where(o => o.Date >= parsedDate && o.Date <= new DateTime(pYear, pMonth, pDay, 12, 59, 40)); break;
}
}
}
This is working Ok. It needs a little change but I think I can use the code above. However today a college of mine pass me a solution which is from a previous project being developed here, and this solution is a lot shorter and I would prefer to use it if possble. It looks like this:
string val = rule.Data;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(val))
{
switch (rule.Field)
{
case "Date": { rows = rows.Where(o => o.Date.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") == val); break; }
}
}
The code doesn't break when I try this but it's not filtering data too. I always get empty result. I guess that o.Date.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") is where the problem lies. I don't know is it ok to use ToString() like this for DateTime object. In the example I'm using ToString() also get a format type like the one I'm providing here - ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") - but in my case ToString() is not overloaded anywhere. Is this a standard way to manipulate DateTime objects or I just can't find the place where ToStrin() is predefined. And finally, can you provide me with a working example based on the code above.
Depending on what culture o.Date is, Try:
string val = rule.Data;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(val))
{
switch (rule.Field)
{
case "Date":
{
rows = rows.Where(o => o.Date.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) ==
DateTime.ParseExact(val,
"dd/MM/yyyy",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
break;
}
}
}
Or you could set the culture of the current thread instead:
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
Edit: It should work if you avoid using strings:
e.g.
DateTime maxDate = new DateTime(2020, 11, 17);
if (DateTime.Now.Date > maxDate)
{
// this will just work regardless of setting culture
}
I think if you need to compare dates then you can just get a Date component of a DateTime and compare it to your predefined value. This should be faster as there won't be a need to transform date to string every time as well. So you can first get your reference value like that DateTime.ParseExact(value, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvarianCulture). You can just use a constructor of a DateTime to compose it as well.
You shouldn't have to use strings at all. If it is a datetime (or similar) in the database, and a DateTime in your c# code, then there is never a good reason to use a string as an intermediate step.
Also, you should pay close attention to the .Kind property of your DateTime values. And you should never be comparing local times against DateTime.Now. If you do, you may introduce errors during daylight saving time transitions. Instead, you should use UTC DateTime values, or use DateTimeOffset values instead. Read more here.

Converting DateTime [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
How to convert DateTime object to dd/mm/yyyy in C#?
I'm new to c# and was hoping someone could help me clean up some code.
I have the following method which converts a DateTime to a custom Event string e.g. 30th of Jan 2012 is converted to 201201 (ignores the day)
public ConvertToEventDate(DateTime date)
{
var year = date.Year.ToString();
var month = date.Month.ToString();
month = month.Length == 2 ? month : "0" + month;
return year + month;
}
I was wondering if there is a better way of doing this conversion.
I'd do this;
public string ConvertToEventDate(DateTime date)
{
return date.ToString("yyyyMM");
}
you can also put this into an Extension method like this;
public static class ExtenstionMethods
{
public static string ToEventDate(this DateTime date)
{
return date.ToString("yyyyMM");
}
}
and then call it ike this;
DateTime date = new DateTime(2012, 30, 1);
date.ToEventDate();
as opposed to this;
ConvertToEventDate(date);
public string ConvertToEventDate(DateTime date)
{
return date.ToString("yyyyMM", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}
Have a look at the custom formatting strings docs
Others have suggested ToString("yyyyMM") which is basically there - but I would suggest you probably want to specify the invariant culture. Otherwise if the thread's current culture uses a non-Gregorian calendar, you could end up with a month/year you're not expecting. So I'd use:
string text = date.ToString("yyyyMM", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
See the documentation for custom date and time format strings for more information if you want to change the exact format later.
Try
return date.ToString("yyyyMM");

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