I am trying to change the DateSeparator and it doesn't work for all cultures. Below, I'm trying to format a date in the Japanese and Korean Cultures and use an underscore for the date separator. It works as expected for Japan, but not for Korea. I've found some other cultures that behave this way as well.
CultureInfo jpCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("jp");
DateTimeFormatInfo jpFormat = jpCulture.DateTimeFormat;
jpFormat.DateSeparator = "_";
CultureInfo koCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("ko");
DateTimeFormatInfo koFormat = koCulture.DateTimeFormat;
koFormat.DateSeparator = "_";
string jpDate = DateTime.Now.ToString("d", jpFormat);
string koDate = DateTime.Now.ToString("d", koFormat);
System.Console.WriteLine($"My local (US) formatting: {DateTime.Now:d} - JP Formatter: {jpDate} - KO Formatter: {koDate}");
Will output:
My local (US) formatting: 8/3/2020 - JP Formatter: 08_03_2020 - KO Formatter: 2020-08-03
I had expected the Korean formatted string to use underscores as well.
My goal is to always have a Date format that's appropriate for the culture (YMD, or MDY or DMY) but using a customizable separator. Is there a more appropriate way to do that?
This happens because the d standard date/time format specifier uses the DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern to produce the output string. Only a "/" character in the pattern will be replaced by the locale's DateSeparator.
If you add the following to your test application:
Console.WriteLine(koCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern);
Console.WriteLine(jpCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern);
you will see the following output:
yyyy-MM-dd
MM/dd/yyyy
The Japanese string contains the "/" character that will be replaced by DateTimeFormat.DateSeparator, so that works.
The Korean one, however, uses - - which won't be replaced!
A possible workaround is to change the Korean short date format like so:
koCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = koCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern.Replace('-', '/');
(although that feels a bit flaky to me...)
As to why the Korean short date pattern is set up like this, I have no idea. It seems like a bug, but only Microsoft could answer that!
It looks like loads of the cultures have "incorrect" ShortDatePattern values where Microsoft has put in the actual date separator character rather than a "/" character, as the following code shows:
foreach (var culture in CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.AllCultures))
{
var dtf = culture.DateTimeFormat;
if (dtf.DateSeparator != "/" && dtf.ShortDatePattern.Contains(dtf.DateSeparator))
Console.WriteLine(culture.EnglishName + " has incorrect short date pattern: " + dtf.ShortDatePattern);
}
There is a problem with DateSeparator, only / is replaced with specified separator, this can be seen in source.
For any culture with ShortDatePattern containing other separator than / the DateSeparator is not working.
Related
I need to convert the date format from dd-mm-yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy. I tried below one, but it is converting the format to mm-dd-yyyy.
packDate = packDateControl.SelectedDate.Value.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy");
I need it to be like this mm/dd/yyyy. How to do this in c#.
Thanks
When used in a custom date format string, the / character substitutes the locale specific date separator, so for English locales, this tends to be /, but for Turkey, it would be .
So, there are a number of options, you could either quote them as text, so something like:
packDate = packDateControl.SelectedDate.Value.ToString("MM'/'dd'/'yyyy");
Or you could specify the locale to use:
var culture = new CultureInfo("en-US");
packDate = packDateControl.SelectedDate.Value.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy", culture);
Or you could use a standard format string, with the relevant locale:
var culture = new CultureInfo("en-US");
packDate = packDateControl.SelectedDate.Value.ToString("d", culture);
For more information on custom date format strings, check out MSDN
Not sure what control you are using, but try . . .
packDate = packDateControl.SelectedDate.Date.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy");
Swapping .Value for .Date.
I am trying to parse a TimeString that looks like:
11/Apr/2014:00:00:12 +0200
my code looks like
DateTime.ParseExact("11/Apr/2014:00:00:12 +0200", "dd/MMM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss zzz", null)
I looked at the MSDN and it looks good for me but I have no clue why I always get a FormatException.
You should add the InvariantCulture as a format provider.
var d = DateTime.ParseExact("11/Apr/2014:00:00:12 +0200", "dd/MMM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss zzz", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Your format string is considering that the / and : characters are specific format separators that will resolve to the ones defined in your current culture, just as HH would signify "hours" in your format. Please refer to this page to see that the time separator and date separator are predefined and will be replaced by the culture specific values.
It is possible to escape the special characters but I think that in the long run your code will be much safer with the InvariantCulture
I have some code that is logging a timestamp in format from a thick client app
DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("MM/dd/yy HH:mm:ss")
Now, on a client running in China (not sure exactly which locale) this is producing a date in the log with the format
11-20-13 02:14:03
I notice it's using - instead of / to delimit the parts, even though I explicitly wanted /
I tried to set the current culture to Chinese simplified zh-CN but I wasn't able to reproduce how the remote client was able to produce that string
Does current culture locale affect the output of this format string? Or does / have some other meaning I'm not aware of?
Yes, the / character is a placeholder for whatever the current culture uses to separate parts of the date. From MSDN:
The "/" custom format specifier represents the date separator, which is used to differentiate years, months, and days. The appropriate localized date separator is retrieved from the DateTimeFormatInfo.DateSeparator property of the current or specified culture.
As with other format specifiers, you can escape the / with a \:
DateTime.UtcNow.ToString(#"MM\/dd\/yy HH\:mm\:ss")
Or specify an explicit culture when formatting the string:
DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("MM/dd/yy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
Yes, that's how it works. / is being replaced with the local date separator. The same applies to : as a time separator. You can find more on MSDN: Custom Date and Time Format Strings.
To change that, escape them with \:
DateTime.UtcNow.ToString(#"MM\/dd\/yy HH\:mm\:ss")
If I do this in C#:
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString("ddd M/dd/yy"));
I would expect output like this:
Wed 6/15/11
But it actually outputs this:
Wed 6 15 11
Why are the slashes disappearing? Is there a way to prevent this and have the date outputted in the expected format?
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString("ddd M/dd/yy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
Console.ReadLine();
try the above
You could also use
Console.WriteLine(dateTime.ToString("ddd M'/'dd'/'yy"));
That's a possible solution if you're not using the invariant culture as mentioned in other answers here.
The default behavior of the "/" (slash) in a format argument is to use the current's culture date separator.
To force the "/" (slash), you must precede it with a "\" (backslash).
Ex.: "yyyy\\/MM\\/dd" will always display a date like "2015/07/02" independent of the current culture in use.
Assuming an invariant culture, is it possible to define a different group separator in the format - than the comma?
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0:#,##0}", 2295));
Output:
2,295
Desired output:
2.295
The invariant culture is a requirement because currencies from many different locales are being formatted with format strings, that have been user defined. Ie for Denmark they have defined the price format to be "{0:0},-", while for Ireland it might be "€{0:#,##0}".
When you have different format strings, this does not mean that you have to use InvariantCulture. If you have a format string for germany e.g. you format this string using the Culture("de-de"):
String.Format(CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo( "de-de" ), "{0:0},-", 2295) //will result in 2.295,-
String.Format(CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo( "en-us" ), "{0:0},-", 2295) //will result in 2,295,-
Alternatively you can specify your custom number format info:
NumberFormatInfo nfi = new NumberFormatInfo( )
{
CurrencyGroupSeparator = ":"
};
String.Format(nfi, "{0:0},-", 2295) //will result in 2:295,-
The normal approach would be to not use an Invariant culture.
You do specify the formatting in Invariant style, but the proper symbols would be substituted, #,##0.00 will come out as 1.234,50 or as 1,235.50 depending on the actual culture used.