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How To Format Date Time In C#

C# Date Time Formatting


Overview Patterns C# Date Time Examples

Overview

C# is a programming language that is owned and developed by Microsoft that allows you to build applications on the .net framework. Date Time Formatting in C# is based off of the ToString function that supports various patterns to display the date and time as desired. More Documentation for C# date time formatting can be found below:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/custom-date-and-time-format-strings


Patterns

Format specifier Description Examples
“d” The day of the month, from 1 through 31. 2009-06-01T13:45:30 -> 1

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 15

“dd” The day of the month, from 01 through 31. 2009-06-01T13:45:30 -> 01

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 15

“ddd” The abbreviated name of the day of the week. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> Mon (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> Пн (ru-RU)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> lun. (fr-FR)

“dddd” The full name of the day of the week. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> Monday (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> понедельник (ru-RU)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> lundi (fr-FR)

“f” The tenths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6170000 -> 6

2009-06-15T13:45:30.05 -> 0

“ff” The hundredths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6170000 -> 61

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0050000 -> 00

“fff” The milliseconds in a date and time value. 6/15/2009 13:45:30.617 -> 617

6/15/2009 13:45:30.0005 -> 000

“ffff” The ten thousandths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6175000 -> 6175

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0000500 -> 0000

“fffff” The hundred thousandths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6175400 -> 61754

6/15/2009 13:45:30.000005 -> 00000

“ffffff” The millionths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6175420 -> 617542

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0000005 -> 000000

“fffffff” The ten millionths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6175425 -> 6175425

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0001150 -> 0001150

“F” If non-zero, the tenths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6170000 -> 6

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0500000 -> (no output)

“FF” If non-zero, the hundredths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6170000 -> 61

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0050000 -> (no output)

“FFF” If non-zero, the milliseconds in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6170000 -> 617

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0005000 -> (no output)

“FFFF” If non-zero, the ten thousandths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.5275000 -> 5275

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0000500 -> (no output)

“FFFFF” If non-zero, the hundred thousandths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6175400 -> 61754

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0000050 -> (no output)

“FFFFFF” If non-zero, the millionths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6175420 -> 617542

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0000005 -> (no output)

“FFFFFFF” If non-zero, the ten millionths of a second in a date and time value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6175425 -> 6175425

2009-06-15T13:45:30.0001150 -> 000115

“g”, “gg” The period or era. 2009-06-15T13:45:30.6170000 -> A.D.
“h” The hour, using a 12-hour clock from 1 to 12. 2009-06-15T01:45:30 -> 1

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 1

“hh” The hour, using a 12-hour clock from 01 to 12. 2009-06-15T01:45:30 -> 01

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 01

“H” The hour, using a 24-hour clock from 0 to 23. 2009-06-15T01:45:30 -> 1

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 13

“HH” The hour, using a 24-hour clock from 00 to 23. 2009-06-15T01:45:30 -> 01

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 13

“K” Time zone information. With DateTime values:

2009-06-15T13:45:30, Kind Unspecified ->

2009-06-15T13:45:30, Kind Utc -> Z

2009-06-15T13:45:30, Kind Local -> -07:00 (depends on local computer settings)

With DateTimeOffset values:

2009-06-15T01:45:30-07:00 –> -07:00

2009-06-15T08:45:30+00:00 –> +00:00

“m” The minute, from 0 through 59. 2009-06-15T01:09:30 -> 9

2009-06-15T13:29:30 -> 29

“mm” The minute, from 00 through 59. 2009-06-15T01:09:30 -> 09

2009-06-15T01:45:30 -> 45

“M” The month, from 1 through 12. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 6
“MM” The month, from 01 through 12. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 06
“MMM” The abbreviated name of the month. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> Jun (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> juin (fr-FR)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> Jun (zu-ZA)

“MMMM” The full name of the month. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> June (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> juni (da-DK)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> uJuni (zu-ZA)

“s” The second, from 0 through 59. 2009-06-15T13:45:09 -> 9
“ss” The second, from 00 through 59. 2009-06-15T13:45:09 -> 09
“t” The first character of the AM/PM designator. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> P (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 午 (ja-JP)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> (fr-FR)

“tt” The AM/PM designator. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> PM (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 午後 (ja-JP)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> (fr-FR)

“y” The year, from 0 to 99. 0001-01-01T00:00:00 -> 1

0900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 0

1900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 0

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 9

2019-06-15T13:45:30 -> 19

“yy” The year, from 00 to 99. 0001-01-01T00:00:00 -> 01

0900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 00

1900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 00

2019-06-15T13:45:30 -> 19

“yyy” The year, with a minimum of three digits. 0001-01-01T00:00:00 -> 001

0900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 900

1900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 1900

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 2009

“yyyy” The year as a four-digit number. 0001-01-01T00:00:00 -> 0001

0900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 0900

1900-01-01T00:00:00 -> 1900

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 2009

“yyyyy” The year as a five-digit number. 0001-01-01T00:00:00 -> 00001

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 02009

“z” Hours offset from UTC, with no leading zeros. 2009-06-15T13:45:30-07:00 -> -7
“zz” Hours offset from UTC, with a leading zero for a single-digit value. 2009-06-15T13:45:30-07:00 -> -07
“zzz” Hours and minutes offset from UTC. 2009-06-15T13:45:30-07:00 -> -07:00
“:” The time separator. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> : (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> . (it-IT)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> : (ja-JP)

“/” The date separator. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> / (en-US)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> – (ar-DZ)

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> . (tr-TR)

string

string

Literal string delimiter. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 (“arr:” h:m t) -> arr: 1:45 P

2009-06-15T13:45:30 (‘arr:’ h:m t) -> arr: 1:45 P

% Defines the following character as a custom format specifier. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 (%h) -> 1
\ The escape character. 2009-06-15T13:45:30 (h \h) -> 1 h
Any other character The character is copied to the result string unchanged. 2009-06-15T01:45:30 (arr hh:mm t) -> arr 01:45 A

Date Time Formatting in C#

The folling example will display the following output:

Todays date is January 15, 2018.
The current date and time: 01/15/18 12:36:45 +00:00

DateTime mydate1 = new DateTime(2018, 1, 15); Console.WriteLine("Todays date is " + mydate1.ToString("MMMM dd, yyyy") + "."); DateTimeOffset mydate2 = new DateTimeOffset(2018, 1, 15, 12, 36, 45, TimeSpan.Zero); Console.WriteLine("The current date and time: {0:MM/dd/yy H:mm:ss zzz}", mydate2); 

The below example is a working C# Date Time program that will convert a string to a DateTime object but only if it is in the correct format. You will see some values will not convert correctly because they are not in the correct format.

It will display the following output when it is finished.

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.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

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);
      }
   }
}