I have an ASP.NET web application which is multi culture meaning I have en-us, en-ca, fr-ca, etc.
My problem is when I am trying to Parse a date 1/22/2014 using DateTime.Parse and I am using en-us, it will work because the ShortDatePattern of en-us is M/dd/yyyy but if the user is en-ca, the ShortDatePattern is dd/MM/yyyy.
How can I parse the dates considering different cultures? I have tried the following codes:
DateTime.Parse(date);
DateTime.ParseExact(date, ShortDatePattern, Culture);
DateTime.TryParseExact(date, ShortDatePattern, Culture, DateTimeStyles.None, out date);
But still no luck for me.
EDIT
DateTime.Parse throws me an exception, string is not a valid datetime. Same with the DateTime.ParseExact. DateTime.TryParseExact give me a date of 1/1/0001.
If you're absolutely sure of the user's culture - and that they'll actually use that - you could use:
// I assume that Culture is a valid reference to a CultureInfo...
DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(date, Culture);
However, I'd strongly consider providing a calendar control or separate year/text-month/day fields on the page (with validation) so that what you post back to ASP.NET can be a machine-readable, culture-neutral date format, e.g. yyyy-MM-dd. Basically, turn the culture-sensitive representation into a culture-neutral representation as early as you can.
If the user can choose multiple languages within your application, I would think it would be easier to cater for the multiple language choices.
Here is what I did sometime ago:
DateTime dateValue = DateTime.Parse(dateVar.ToString());
string currentCulture = XmlLanguage.GetLanguage(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.IeftLanguageTag).ToString();
CultureInfo culture = new CultureInfo(currentCulture);
Console.WriteLine(dateValue.ToString("d", culture));
DateVar being the date value that you want to convert to new culture.
The above code makes use of the System.Windows.Markup namespace
Just change Console.WriteLine your preferred output display.
Related
Basically,I am reading excel file where one of that columns has date format like : dd/MM/yyyy eg: 11/04/2016
When I am using DateTime.TryParse() to parse that string into datetime method TryParse() treated first numbers like month (number 11 in example above). However the same code running on the other computers will take the second number (04 in example above) as the month.
So my question is why there is a difference between them, what actually decide the behavior of TryParse method?
I think the main difference is in IFormatProvider (hard to say if I can't check some settings in target system), but I usually use other method to get proper DateTime object:
DateTime someDate = DateTime.ParseExact(myStringDate, "dd/MM/yyyy", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
It always gives me what I want no matter how client environment is configured.
Hope this helps. :)
From DateTime.TryParse(String, DateTime) documentation:
Because the DateTime.TryParse(String, DateTime) method tries to parse
the string representation of a date and time using the formatting
rules of the current culture, trying to parse a particular string
across different cultures can either fail or return different results.
If a specific date and time format will be parsed across different
locales, use the
DateTime.TryParse(String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)
method or one of the overloads of the TryParseExact method and provide
a format specifier.
That means your computers have different culture settings which is pointed in CurrentCulture property.
Looks like one computer's current culture have dd/MM/yyyy and the other computer's current culture have MM/dd/yyyy as a standard date and time format.
Since you are sure your values are always in dd/MM/yyyy format, I would use DateTime.ParseExact instead of Datetime.TryParse or DateTime.TryParseExact methods like;
var dt = DateTime.ParseExact(yourColumnValue, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Or you can sets all computers current culture to like the first computer but remember, CultureInfo data is not a stable data that might be change in future with a windows update, .NET Framework version or OS version.
I had a situation that locally working but not in hosting (godaddy.com)
DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(TextBoxSelectedDate.Text.Trim());
string d = date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");//localhost out put 2013-10-13
DateTime.Parse(d);
but when I host is giving this exception
System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.
Why is this
Thanks
Your hoster might be using a different language / region setting than you. Try calling Parse with a specific culture object:
DateTime.Parse("2013-10-13", CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("the name of your culture, en-US for example"))
You can find a list of culture names here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb896001.aspx
You can also use CultureInfo.InvariantCulture
You use a format string when you go from DateTime to string. Use the same format string when you go in the opposite direction:
DateTime.ParseExact(d, "yyyy-MM-dd", null)
If you want to be absolutely sure the current culture of your thread doesn't mess things up, you can use the invariant culture:
DateTime.ParseExact(d, "yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
I have developed a winform application that makes use of the format dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss (24 hr system).
When I try the application on another computer, I get an error, because the standard datetime format there is dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss am/pm.
Moreover, the controls in which the datetime is stored, also hold the datetime string in a different format: d/M/yyyy hh:mm:ss am/pm, eg 1/4/2013 12:00:00 A.M. instead of 01/04/2013 12:00:00 A.M.
Can I force the other system to somehow use the same format?
I am a novice here. Thanks for the help.
When displaying a DateTime object, there are two things to keep in mind.
Culture settings: when you don't specify an explicit culture, the culture that's set by the system your application is running on is used.
Format strings: when converting a DateTime object to a string, you can give it a format string as an argument that specifies how your DateTime object should be formatted. Something like: "d" for a short date pattern or "t" to only display the time.
Combining these two will give you full control over how to display your DateTime objects. You should however be careful in forcing a certain culture setting on the user. If your application should support globalization (so multiple users from different cultures can use your app) you shouldn't depend on a specific culture. Instead, you should store all your data culture-insensitive and format it with the users culture when you display it on screen.
Here is an example how to use both the CultureInfo object and a format string:
string myDate = "10-05-2013 08:52:30";
DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(myDate);
Console.WriteLine(date.ToString("d", new CultureInfo("en-US"))); // 5/10/2013
Console.WriteLine(date.ToString("d", new CultureInfo("nl-NL"))); // 10-5-2013
Console.WriteLine(date.ToString("f", new CultureInfo("nl-NL"))); // vrijdag 10 mei 2013 08:52
You should be able to set the culture for the application to the one you need to use.
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("EN");
I would not recommend to force the system to one date and time format. From my point of view the better question would be, why is your application using a specified format? The .NET Framework is designed that you don't have to care about such things.
Anyway, if you will really force the system to display the data in a specified format, change the thread culture:
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE")
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("de-DE")
I cam trying to convert a datetime to string and back, but making it so that it works for all cultures.
I basically have a Textbox (tbDateTime) and a label (lbDateTime). The label tells the user, in which format the software expects the input of tbDateTime. The input of the Textbox will be used for an MySQL command.
Currently it works like this:
lbDateTime.Text = "DD.MM.YYYY hh:mm:ss"; // I live in germany
DateTime date = Convert.ToDateTime(tbDateTime.Text);
String filter = date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
Now my question:
Is it possible to determine the format-string for lbDateTime.Text based on the current culture?
Which format does the Convert.ToDateTime function uses?
I hope you can help me. I have actually no pc here to test different cultures, so I'm very afraid that I make something wrong.
Instead of using the Convert.ToDateTime method you can use the DateTime.Parse or DateTime.ParseExact methods. Both allow you to pass a culture that tells how you expect the date to be formatted.
The DateTime.ParseExact method also allows you to specify the format you expect, so you can parse more or less any format with this method.
Edit:
Regarding Convert.ToDateTime. The documentation says that the current culture is used when parsing: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xhz1w05e.aspx
The current culture can be found using the System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture property.
Edit2:
Oh. You may also want to use DateTime.TryParse and DateTime.TryParseExact if you are unsure whether the given format is invalid.
Edit3:
Lots of edits here... I see that you want to determine the culture string that matches the date the user has entered. There is no general solution that is guaranteed to work here. Say for instance that the user has entered the date 01.02.11. There is no way to be certain if this date is in day.month.year or month.day.year or year.month.day and so on.
The best you can do is to have a list of expected input cultures and start with the most likely and try to parse the date using that. If that fails, you can try the second most likely and so on...
But this is really not recommended. Either give the user an expected format, or better, use a date input box that ensures that you receive the selected date in an appropriate format.
The Convert.ToDateTime method will call DateTime.Parse to parse the string, using the current culture (CultureInfo.Current).
You can specify a culture when parsing the string. Example:
DateTime data = DateTime.Parse(tbDateTime.Text, new CultureInfo("en-GB"));
You can use DateTime.ParseExact (or DateTime.TryParseExact) to parse the string using a custom date format. Example:
DateTime data = DateTime.ParseExact(tbDateTime.Text, "dd'.'MM'.'yyyy HH':'mm':'ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Another solution :
// Specify the current language (used in the current system you are working on)
CultureInfo currentCulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.ToString());
// Specify the language that we need
CultureInfo myLanguage = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US");
// Adapt the DateTime here, we will use the current time for this example
DateTime currentDate = DateTime.Now;
// The date in the format that we need
string myDate = DateTime.Parse(currentDate.ToString(), currentCulture).ToString(myLanguage);
I am sending in a string in dd/MM/yyyy format, which is then being parsed into lv-LV culture as set per the web.config globalization setting.
I am then comparing the date to DateTime.Now to see if it is in the past.
The problem is, DateTime.Parse converts my string to dd.MM.yyyy format, but DateTime.Now has MM.dd.yyyy format, so the comparison always fails.
Why would DateTime.Now be different to the output from DateTime.Parse, on the same thread culture?
Thanks!
(Update) This is the code I am using:
InputText contains input from a form in DD.MM.YYYY format
DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(InputText, CultureInfo.CurrentCulture);
// Check it's not in the past
this.IsValid = (date.CompareTo(DateTime.Now) > 0);
[DateTime.Now] in this context is in MM.DD.YYYY format using lv-LV cultureInfo
[date] is in DD.MM.YYYY format after the DateTime.Parse
A DateTime does not have formatting - it is simply a point in time.
If you are viewing it, that means you are outputting it. Use the correct culture to output the date.
DateTime.ToString has overloads that take a format provider such as a CultureInfo:
string formatted = DateTime.ToString(new CultureInfo("lv-LV"));
If not specified (in code or configuration), the default system culture will be used (or CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, in some cases).
If you just want to compare the 2 dates, you don't need to convert to string first.
DateTime myDate = DateTime.Parse(myDateAsString);//with the correct locale to ensure it's correctly parsed
if (myDate < DateTime.Now)
{
//it's in the past
}