remove time from date and print only date in datetime format - c#

i have date stored in a string format as follows: "2014-03-12"
im passing this to a database which accepts the date as datetime.
im converting the string date to datetime format as follows:
DateTime StartDates = Convert.ToDateTime(StartDate);
but the time gets appended along with the date as "2014-03-12 12:00:00:00"
can anyone tel me how to send only the date leaving out the time.
i want the final date to be still in datetime format only but with time part cut off

DateTime is irrespective of the format. Formatting is only useful for presentation purpose. A DateTime object will have a Date part and Time part. When you try parsing your string "2014-03-12", it doesn't have a Time part, so in the parsed object, Time is set to 00:00:00.
If you just want to to display date then you can use DateTime.ToShortDateString method or use a custom format like:
string formattedDateString = StartDates.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

If you're happy with the date part, you may simply return the Date property of the DateTime conversion result:
DateTime StartDates = Convert.ToDateTime(StartDate).Date;
I should mention that using Convert.ToDateTime puts you at the mercy of the process current culture date format though, so you probably want to use the ParseExact or ToString method like the other answers suggests, with the appropriate format and culture instance.

Related

String with dd/MM/yyyy format to Date time irrespective of System date time format [duplicate]

I need convert the date of string format 'MM/dd/yyyy' to datetime format 'MM/dd/yyyy' when the system date format is 'dd/MM/yyyy'.
DateTime stores a date as a numerical value, not as a string. So asking for a DateTime type of format 'MM/dd/yyyy' doesn't make much sense. If you are displaying the date in a WPF control, it will default to displaying a string that conforms to the system date format. But that is just a display string that you can manipulate using the format strings alluded to in the links above. Using #Sajeetharan's code will create a DateTime struct with the correct value internally. How you display it is up to you and your string formatting choices.
The same goes for dates stored in a database column of type 'datetime'. The value is stored numerically. Your query editor will display the value likely in the same format as your system settings. If the date is stored as a string, then again, #Sajeetharan's code is the correct way to convert the database string into a DateTime struct.
use DateTime.ParseExact
DateTime.ParseExact("05/02/2014", "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
This may help:
string dateString="05/02/2014";
DateTime txtmyDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
try this
string dateString="05/02/2014";
DateTime txtmyDate =convert.toDateTime(dateString);
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("05/02/2014","MM/dd/yyyy",CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

A Datetime without time without string.format

I have a DataTable coming from a stored procedure which I'm writing to an excel file. There's a column with a DateTime datatype, and looking at the values in there, they're just generic dates with the time stamp.
I've tried using the DateTime.Date property, but that still gives me a time stamp. Further, I've tried to create a new DateTime object using the year,month,day constructor but it still adds a time stamp:
DateTime newDate = DateTime(oldDate.Year, oldDate.Month, oldDate.Day);
I'm trying to keep the column datatype to DateTime but remove the time stamp, so this rules out ToString("") formatting. Is there another way?
A DateTime always contains a date and a time portion. If you use the Date property it returns a new DateTime where the time is 0:00:00 so midnight at the same day. You want a string representation of the datetime without the time.
You can use DateTime.ToString:
string result = oldDate.ToString("d"); // uses current culture's date format
or
string result = oldDate.ToShortDateString(); // same as above
or
string result = oldDate.ToString("MM-dd-yyyy"); // custom format
Edit: "so this rules out ToString("") formatting. Is there another way?"
No, because of the reason mentioned above.
It's important to separate the data from how it is displayed. If you need to display it without time use the code above, you can store the original DateTime variable for future processing, select it again from database or use DateTime.Parse/DateTime.ParseExcact to get a DateTime from the string.
The 'problem' is that there is no Date struct in .NET, you only have a DateTime struct. That will always contain both date and time. You can only format it as date.
Or, you could of course write your own struct containing only the date part, or give up and use string.Format to format it as a date (possibly using the short date string d).
If you mean time part with timestamp, a DateTime instance always have both date and time part. DateTime.Date property just sets the time value set to midnight.
You can get it's string representation if you want only it's Date part. You can get standard date and time format or custom date and time format with DateTime.ToString() method.
Usually, you can use ShortDatePattern to get only string representation of Date part which uses standard "d" format of your CurrentCulture.
DateTime.Now.ToString("d");
There is a proposal for System.Date and System.Time types for .NET Framework in dotnet/corefx on GitHub page by the way.
Proposal: System.Date type
You should use DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString();

Error converting DateTime to string format yyyy-MM-dd

I'm trying to convert some DateTime values to string format yyyy-MM-dd. The problem is i only need the date but in my case model.StartDate contains both date and time. When declaring model.StartDate as string "start" looks like this: 4/1/2014 12:00:00 AM. I get this error when trying to parse:
System.FormatException was unhandled by user code Message=String was
not recognized as a valid DateTime.
My best guess is that the error occurs because string contains both Date and Time but i could be wrong. If i explore model.StartDate further i can also find Day, DayOfTheWeek etc. Is this the right approach? I just want to convert model.StartDate to string "start" with format yyyy-MM-dd.
Heres my code:
string start = model.StartDate.ToString();
model.StartDate = DateTime.ParseExact(start, "yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
string end = model.EndDate.ToString();
model.EndDate = DateTime.ParseExact(end, "yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Dunno what the problem is, might be that start contains time? I have no idea.
The model.StartDate and model.EndDate are DateTime properties from the view model:
[NopResourceDisplayName("Admin.GAStatistics.GAStatistics.StartDate")]
[UIHint("DateNullable")]
public DateTime? StartDate { get; set; }
[NopResourceDisplayName("Admin.GAStatistics.GAStatistics.EndDate")]
[UIHint("DateNullable")]
public DateTime? EndDate { get; set; }
EDIT:
Iv'e uploaded a image here showing the actual output i'm getting in the debugger:
https://imageshack.com/i/1n51u2p
Thank you
You are converting the dates to string but you don't specify the format. Try
string start = model.StartDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd);
ToString() uses the current thread's Culture format to convert the date to a string, including the time. The format used is G, the general date and time format.
Just for this format, you don't need to specify CultureInfo.InvariantCulture because there isn't anything culture specific. A common gotcha with the yyyy/MM/dd format though is that some cultures use - as the date specifier, and / is the date placeholder. In such a case you would have to use:
string start = model.StartDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd,CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
UPDATE
From the comments, it seems that model.StartDate and model.EndDate are not DateTime objects but strings with a specific format that include a time element.
What you are actually trying to do is parse the original string to a DateTime object, then format this object to the new format string:
var date=DateTime.ParseExact(model.StartDate,"M/d/YYYY HH:mm:ss tt",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
model.StartDate=date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd",CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
assuming the string the value "4/1/2014 12:00:00 AM" for April 1, 2014
You appear to be misunderstanding how ParseExact works (or actually what it does). Parsing, in general, is the process of taking data of type X and converting it to type Y - in the context of DateTime this means converting a date string to a DateTime instance. This is completely different to what you are trying to do which is formatting a DateTime instance.
Given you already have the date you don't need to parse anything, all you need to do is format the date
model.StartDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture is important when working with fixed formats because you want to make sure you aren't culture aware i.e. the format you specify is exactly how you want it to display in all cultures.
Use the .Date property of a DateTime to get only the Date part. Your ToString() will also yield different results based on the current culture meaning that while your ToString() and then TryParse might work for you right now, it will break in other countries.
You can use ToString() overload to specify a specific format. Different formats can be found here

Format Exception - string not recognized as a valid DateTime

I have an issue similar to this > Format exception String was not recognized as a valid DateTime
However, my spec requires a date format of ddMMyyyy, therefore I have modified my code but I am still getting the same error
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(now.ToString(), #"ddMMyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
I am unclear why.
You code fails because you are attempting to parse a date in the format ddMMyyyy, when by default DateTime.ToString() will produce a format with both date and time in the current culture.
For myself in Australia that would be dd/MM/yyy hh:mm:ss p e.g. 11/10/2013 11:07:03 AM
You must realise is that the DateTime object actually stores a date as individual components (e.g. day, month, year) that only needs to be format when you output the value into whatever format you desire.
E.g.
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
string formattedDate = now.ToString("ddMMyyyy", DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
For more information see the api doc:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8tfzyc64.aspx
For ParseExact to work, the string coming in must match exactly the pattern matching. In the other question you mentioned, the text was coming from a web form where the format was specified to be exactly one format.
In your case you generated the date using DateTime.Now.ToString() which will not be in the format ddMMyyyy. If you want to make the date round trip, you need to specify the format both places:
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(now.ToString("ddMMyyyy"), #"ddMMyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Debug your code and look at what the result of now.ToString() is, it's is not in the format of "ddMMyyyy", which is why the parse is failing. If you want to output now as a string in the ddMMyyy format, then try now.ToSTring("ddMMyyyy") instead.
now.ToString() does not return a string formatted in that way. Try using now.ToString("ddMMyyyy").
You might be better off testing with a static string like "30041999"

A type to create DateTime Object in particular format in C#.NET

In my project, I am in need of creating a DateTime object in below format.
"MM/dd/yy hh:mm tt" (without seconds and the year in two digit format)
When I am creating a date time object with a string (like "7/12/12 04:50 AM"), the created date time object is in the format of complete date time structure. (7/12/2012 04:50:00 AM)
Is there any way to create date time object (not string format) in particular format?
No, It has predefined date and time value (such as the year, month, and day, or the number of ticks).
There is no way other than converting it in string with the format you are in need of.
DateTime dat1 = new DateTime();
// The following method call displays 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM.
It uses the default DateTime.ToString() method to display the date and time using the short date and long time patterns.
The DateTime object does not have any format. It has members and those members will have values. If you don't supply those values, they will be 0. The only way you can hide them is to format the DateTime object to a String where those values will not be shown. But in the DateTime object itself, they will still exist.
No, the DateTime object stores a date and time in a predetermined format.
What you are trying to do really should be done when displaying the date.
Perhaps if you explain the real problem you're trying to solve, someone can suggested a better alternative.
you can try by converting this to string and give your specified format as follows:
datetime dt=new datetime();
string dateval=dt.tostring("MM/dd/yy hh:mm tt")
thanks.

Categories