Develop Reference

Read DateTime value in correct format with JQuery (passed from controller to ajax) [duplicate]

I'm taking my first crack at Ajax with jQuery. I'm getting my data onto my page, but I'm having some trouble with the JSON data that is returned for Date data types. Basically, I'm getting a string back that looks like this:
/Date(1224043200000)/
From someone totally new to JSON - How do I format this to a short date format? Should this be handled somewhere in the jQuery code? I've tried the jQuery.UI.datepicker plugin using $.datepicker.formatDate() without any success.
FYI: Here's the solution I came up with using a combination of the answers here:
function getMismatch(id) {
$.getJSON("Main.aspx?Callback=GetMismatch",
{ MismatchId: id },
function (result) {
$("#AuthMerchId").text(result.AuthorizationMerchantId);
$("#SttlMerchId").text(result.SettlementMerchantId);
$("#CreateDate").text(formatJSONDate(Date(result.AppendDts)));
$("#ExpireDate").text(formatJSONDate(Date(result.ExpiresDts)));
$("#LastUpdate").text(formatJSONDate(Date(result.LastUpdateDts)));
$("#LastUpdatedBy").text(result.LastUpdateNt);
$("#ProcessIn").text(result.ProcessIn);
}
);
return false;
}
function formatJSONDate(jsonDate) {
var newDate = dateFormat(jsonDate, "mm/dd/yyyy");
return newDate;
}
This solution got my object from the callback method and displayed the dates on the page properly using the date format library.

eval() is not necessary. This will work fine:
var date = new Date(parseInt(jsonDate.substr(6)));
The substr() function takes out the /Date( part, and the parseInt() function gets the integer and ignores the )/ at the end. The resulting number is passed into the Date constructor.
I have intentionally left out the radix (the 2nd argument to parseInt); see my comment below.
Also, I completely agree with Rory's comment: ISO-8601 dates are preferred over this old format - so this format generally shouldn't be used for new development.
For ISO-8601 formatted JSON dates, just pass the string into the Date constructor:
var date = new Date(jsonDate); //no ugly parsing needed; full timezone support

You can use this to get a date from JSON:
var date = eval(jsonDate.replace(/\/Date\((\d+)\)\//gi, "new Date($1)"));
And then you can use a JavaScript Date Format script (1.2 KB when minified and gzipped) to display it as you want.

For those using Newtonsoft Json.NET, read up on how to do it via Native JSON in IE8, Firefox 3.5 plus Json.NET.
Also the documentation on changing the format of dates written by Json.NET is useful:
Serializing Dates with Json.NET
For those that are too lazy, here are the quick steps. As JSON has a loose DateTime implementation, you need to use the IsoDateTimeConverter(). Note that since Json.NET 4.5 the default date format is ISO so the code below isn't needed.
string jsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(p, new IsoDateTimeConverter());
The JSON will come through as
"fieldName": "2009-04-12T20:44:55"
Finally, some JavaScript to convert the ISO date to a JavaScript date:
function isoDateReviver(value) {
if (typeof value === 'string') {
var a = /^(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})T(\d{2}):(\d{2}):(\d{2}(?:\.\d*)?)(?:([\+-])(\d{2})\:(\d{2}))?Z?$/.exec(value);
if (a) {
var utcMilliseconds = Date.UTC(+a[1], +a[2] - 1, +a[3], +a[4], +a[5], +a[6]);
return new Date(utcMilliseconds);
}
}
return value;
}
I used it like this
$("<span />").text(isoDateReviver(item.fieldName).toLocaleString()).appendTo("#" + divName);

The original example:
/Date(1224043200000)/
does not reflect the formatting used by WCF when sending dates via WCF REST using the built-in JSON serialization. (at least on .NET 3.5, SP1)
I found the answer here helpful, but a slight edit to the regex is required, as it appears that the timezone GMT offset is being appended onto the number returned (since 1970) in WCF JSON.
In a WCF service I have:
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(
RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest
)]
ApptVisitLinkInfo GetCurrentLinkInfo( int appointmentsId );
ApptVisitLinkInfo is defined simply:
public class ApptVisitLinkInfo {
string Field1 { get; set; }
DateTime Field2 { get; set; }
...
}
When "Field2" is returned as Json from the service the value is:
/Date(1224043200000-0600)/
Notice the timezone offset included as part of the value.
The modified regex:
/\/Date\((.*?)\)\//gi
It's slightly more eager and grabs everything between the parens, not just the first number. The resulting time sinze 1970, plus timezone offset can all be fed into the eval to get a date object.
The resulting line of JavaScript for the replace is:
replace(/\/Date\((.*?)\)\//gi, "new Date($1)");

Don't repeat yourself - automate date conversion using $.parseJSON()
Answers to your post provide manual date conversion to JavaScript dates. I've extended jQuery's $.parseJSON() just a little bit, so it's able to automatically parse dates when you instruct it to. It processes ASP.NET formatted dates (/Date(12348721342)/) as well as ISO formatted dates (2010-01-01T12.34.56.789Z) that are supported by native JSON functions in browsers (and libraries like json2.js).
Anyway. If you don't want to repeat your date conversion code over and over again I suggest you read this blog post and get the code that will make your life a little easier.

Click here to check the Demo
JavaScript/jQuery
var = MyDate_String_Value = "/Date(1224043200000)/"
var value = new Date
(
parseInt(MyDate_String_Value.replace(/(^.*\()|([+-].*$)/g, ''))
);
var dat = value.getMonth() +
1 +
"/" +
value.getDate() +
"/" +
value.getFullYear();
Result - "10/15/2008"

If you say in JavaScript,
var thedate = new Date(1224043200000);
alert(thedate);
you will see that it's the correct date, and you can use that anywhere in JavaScript code with any framework.

Updated
We have an internal UI library that has to cope with both Microsoft's ASP.NET built-in JSON format, like /Date(msecs)/, asked about here originally, and most JSON's date format including JSON.NET's, like 2014-06-22T00:00:00.0. In addition we need to cope with oldIE's inability to cope with anything but 3 decimal places.
We first detect what kind of date we're consuming, parse it into a normal JavaScript Date object, then format that out.
1) Detect Microsoft Date format
// Handling of Microsoft AJAX Dates, formatted like '/Date(01238329348239)/'
function looksLikeMSDate(s) {
return /^\/Date\(/.test(s);
}
2) Detect ISO date format
var isoDateRegex = /^(\d\d\d\d)-(\d\d)-(\d\d)T(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d\d)(\.\d\d?\d?)?([\+-]\d\d:\d\d|Z)?$/;
function looksLikeIsoDate(s) {
return isoDateRegex.test(s);
}
3) Parse MS date format:
function parseMSDate(s) {
// Jump forward past the /Date(, parseInt handles the rest
return new Date(parseInt(s.substr(6)));
}
4) Parse ISO date format.
We do at least have a way to be sure that we're dealing with standard ISO dates or ISO dates modified to always have three millisecond places (see above), so the code is different depending on the environment.
4a) Parse standard ISO Date format, cope with oldIE's issues:
function parseIsoDate(s) {
var m = isoDateRegex.exec(s);
// Is this UTC, offset, or undefined? Treat undefined as UTC.
if (m.length == 7 || // Just the y-m-dTh:m:s, no ms, no tz offset - assume UTC
(m.length > 7 && (
!m[7] || // Array came back length 9 with undefined for 7 and 8
m[7].charAt(0) != '.' || // ms portion, no tz offset, or no ms portion, Z
!m[8] || // ms portion, no tz offset
m[8] == 'Z'))) { // ms portion and Z
// JavaScript's weirdo date handling expects just the months to be 0-based, as in 0-11, not 1-12 - the rest are as you expect in dates.
var d = new Date(Date.UTC(m[1], m[2]-1, m[3], m[4], m[5], m[6]));
} else {
// local
var d = new Date(m[1], m[2]-1, m[3], m[4], m[5], m[6]);
}
return d;
}
4b) Parse ISO format with a fixed three millisecond decimal places - much easier:
function parseIsoDate(s) {
return new Date(s);
}
5) Format it:
function hasTime(d) {
return !!(d.getUTCHours() || d.getUTCMinutes() || d.getUTCSeconds());
}
function zeroFill(n) {
if ((n + '').length == 1)
return '0' + n;
return n;
}
function formatDate(d) {
if (hasTime(d)) {
var s = (d.getMonth() + 1) + '/' + d.getDate() + '/' + d.getFullYear();
s += ' ' + d.getHours() + ':' + zeroFill(d.getMinutes()) + ':' + zeroFill(d.getSeconds());
} else {
var s = (d.getMonth() + 1) + '/' + d.getDate() + '/' + d.getFullYear();
}
return s;
}
6) Tie it all together:
function parseDate(s) {
var d;
if (looksLikeMSDate(s))
d = parseMSDate(s);
else if (looksLikeIsoDate(s))
d = parseIsoDate(s);
else
return null;
return formatDate(d);
}
The below old answer is useful for tying this date formatting into jQuery's own JSON parsing so you get Date objects instead of strings, or if you're still stuck in jQuery <1.5 somehow.
Old Answer
If you're using jQuery 1.4's Ajax function with ASP.NET MVC, you can turn all DateTime properties into Date objects with:
// Once
jQuery.parseJSON = function(d) {return eval('(' + d + ')');};
$.ajax({
...
dataFilter: function(d) {
return d.replace(/"\\\/(Date\(-?\d+\))\\\/"/g, 'new $1');
},
...
});
In jQuery 1.5 you can avoid overriding the parseJSON method globally by using the converters option in the Ajax call.
http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/
Unfortunately you have to switch to the older eval route in order to get Dates to parse globally in-place - otherwise you need to convert them on a more case-by-case basis post-parse.

There is no built in date type in JSON. This looks like the number of seconds / milliseconds from some epoch. If you know the epoch you can create the date by adding on the right amount of time.

I also had to search for a solution to this problem and eventually I came across moment.js which is a nice library that can parse this date format and many more.
var d = moment(yourdatestring)
It saved some headache for me so I thought I'd share it with you. :)
You can find some more info about it here: http://momentjs.com/

I ended up adding the "characters into Panos's regular expression to get rid of the ones generated by the Microsoft serializer for when writing objects into an inline script:
So if you have a property in your C# code-behind that's something like
protected string JsonObject { get { return jsSerialiser.Serialize(_myObject); }}
And in your aspx you have
<script type="text/javascript">
var myObject = '<%= JsonObject %>';
</script>
You'd get something like
var myObject = '{"StartDate":"\/Date(1255131630400)\/"}';
Notice the double quotes.
To get this into a form that eval will correctly deserialize, I used:
myObject = myObject.replace(/"\/Date\((\d+)\)\/"/g, 'new Date($1)');
I use Prototype and to use it I added
String.prototype.evalJSONWithDates = function() {
var jsonWithDates = this.replace(/"\/Date\((\d+)\)\/"/g, 'new Date($1)');
return jsonWithDates.evalJSON(true);
}

In jQuery 1.5, as long as you have json2.js to cover for older browsers, you can deserialize all dates coming from Ajax as follows:
(function () {
var DATE_START = "/Date(";
var DATE_START_LENGTH = DATE_START.length;
function isDateString(x) {
return typeof x === "string" && x.startsWith(DATE_START);
}
function deserializeDateString(dateString) {
var dateOffsetByLocalTime = new Date(parseInt(dateString.substr(DATE_START_LENGTH)));
var utcDate = new Date(dateOffsetByLocalTime.getTime() - dateOffsetByLocalTime.getTimezoneOffset() * 60 * 1000);
return utcDate;
}
function convertJSONDates(key, value) {
if (isDateString(value)) {
return deserializeDateString(value);
}
return value;
}
window.jQuery.ajaxSetup({
converters: {
"text json": function(data) {
return window.JSON.parse(data, convertJSONDates);
}
}
});
}());
I included logic that assumes you send all dates from the server as UTC (which you should); the consumer then gets a JavaScript Date object that has the proper ticks value to reflect this. That is, calling getUTCHours(), etc. on the date will return the same value as it did on the server, and calling getHours() will return the value in the user's local timezone as determined by their browser.
This does not take into account WCF format with timezone offsets, though that would be relatively easy to add.

Using the jQuery UI datepicker - really only makes sense if you're already including jQuery UI:
$.datepicker.formatDate('MM d, yy', new Date(parseInt('/Date(1224043200000)/'.substr(6))));
output:
October 15, 2008

Don't over-think this. Like we've done for decades, pass a numeric offset from the de-facto standard epoch of 1 Jan 1970 midnight GMT/UTC/&c in number of seconds (or milliseconds) since this epoch. JavaScript likes it, Java likes it, C likes it, and the Internet likes it.

Everyone of these answers has one thing in common: they all store dates as a single value (usually a string).
Another option is to take advantage of the inherent structure of JSON, and represent a date as list of numbers:
{ "name":"Nick",
"birthdate":[1968,6,9] }
Of course, you would have to make sure both ends of the conversation agree on the format (year, month, day), and which fields are meant to be dates,... but it has the advantage of completely avoiding the issue of date-to-string conversion. It's all numbers -- no strings at all. Also, using the order: year, month, day also allows proper sorting by date.
Just thinking outside the box here -- a JSON date doesn't have to be stored as a string.
Another bonus to doing it this way is that you can easily (and efficiently) select all records for a given year or month by leveraging the way CouchDB handles queries on array values.

Posting in awesome thread:
var d = new Date(parseInt('/Date(1224043200000)/'.slice(6, -2)));
alert('' + (1 + d.getMonth()) + '/' + d.getDate() + '/' + d.getFullYear().toString().slice(-2));

Just to add another approach here, the "ticks approach" that WCF takes is prone to problems with timezones if you're not extremely careful such as described here and in other places. So I'm now using the ISO 8601 format that both .NET & JavaScript duly support that includes timezone offsets. Below are the details:
In WCF/.NET:
Where CreationDate is a System.DateTime; ToString("o") is using .NET's Round-trip format specifier that generates an ISO 8601-compliant date string
new MyInfo {
CreationDate = r.CreationDate.ToString("o"),
};
In JavaScript
Just after retrieving the JSON I go fixup the dates to be JavaSript Date objects using the Date constructor which accepts an ISO 8601 date string...
$.getJSON(
"MyRestService.svc/myinfo",
function (data) {
$.each(data.myinfos, function (r) {
this.CreatedOn = new Date(this.CreationDate);
});
// Now each myinfo object in the myinfos collection has a CreatedOn field that is a real JavaScript date (with timezone intact).
alert(data.myinfos[0].CreationDate.toLocaleString());
}
)
Once you have a JavaScript date you can use all the convenient and reliable Date methods like toDateString, toLocaleString, etc.

var newDate = dateFormat(jsonDate, "mm/dd/yyyy");
Is there another option without using the jQuery library?

This may can also help you.
function ToJavaScriptDate(value) { //To Parse Date from the Returned Parsed Date
var pattern = /Date\(([^)]+)\)/;
var results = pattern.exec(value);
var dt = new Date(parseFloat(results[1]));
return (dt.getMonth() + 1) + "/" + dt.getDate() + "/" + dt.getFullYear();
}

I get the date like this:
"/Date(1276290000000+0300)/"
In some examples the date is in slightly different formats:
"/Date(12762900000000300)/"
"Date(1276290000000-0300)"
etc.
So I came up with the following RegExp:
/\/+Date\(([\d+]+)\)\/+/
and the final code is:
var myDate = new Date(parseInt(jsonWcfDate.replace(/\/+Date\(([\d+-]+)\)\/+/, '$1')));
Hope it helps.
Update:
I found this link from Microsoft:
How do I Serialize Dates with JSON?
This seems like the one we are all looking for.

Below is a pretty simple solution for parsing JSON dates. Use the below functions as per your requirement. You just need to pass the JSON format Date fetched as a parameter to the functions below:
function JSONDate(dateStr) {
var m, day;
jsonDate = dateStr;
var d = new Date(parseInt(jsonDate.substr(6)));
m = d.getMonth() + 1;
if (m < 10)
m = '0' + m
if (d.getDate() < 10)
day = '0' + d.getDate()
else
day = d.getDate();
return (m + '/' + day + '/' + d.getFullYear())
}
function JSONDateWithTime(dateStr) {
jsonDate = dateStr;
var d = new Date(parseInt(jsonDate.substr(6)));
var m, day;
m = d.getMonth() + 1;
if (m < 10)
m = '0' + m
if (d.getDate() < 10)
day = '0' + d.getDate()
else
day = d.getDate();
var formattedDate = m + "/" + day + "/" + d.getFullYear();
var hours = (d.getHours() < 10) ? "0" + d.getHours() : d.getHours();
var minutes = (d.getMinutes() < 10) ? "0" + d.getMinutes() : d.getMinutes();
var formattedTime = hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + d.getSeconds();
formattedDate = formattedDate + " " + formattedTime;
return formattedDate;
}

You also can use the JavaScript library moment.js, which comes in handy when you plan do deal with different localized formats and perform other operations with dates values:
function getMismatch(id) {
$.getJSON("Main.aspx?Callback=GetMismatch",
{ MismatchId: id },
function (result) {
$("#AuthMerchId").text(result.AuthorizationMerchantId);
$("#SttlMerchId").text(result.SettlementMerchantId);
$("#CreateDate").text(moment(result.AppendDts).format("L"));
$("#ExpireDate").text(moment(result.ExpiresDts).format("L"));
$("#LastUpdate").text(moment(result.LastUpdateDts).format("L"));
$("#LastUpdatedBy").text(result.LastUpdateNt);
$("#ProcessIn").text(result.ProcessIn);
}
);
return false;
}
Setting up localization is as easy as adding configuration files (you get them at momentjs.com) to your project and configuring the language:
moment.lang('de');

Check up the date ISO standard; kind of like this:
yyyy.MM.ddThh:mm
It becomes 2008.11.20T22:18.

This is frustrating. My solution was to parse out the "/ and /" from the value generated by ASP.NET's JavaScriptSerializer so that, though JSON may not have a date literal, it still gets interpreted by the browser as a date, which is what all I really want:{"myDate":Date(123456789)}
Custom JavaScriptConverter for DateTime?
I must emphasize the accuracy of Roy Tinker's comment. This is not legal JSON. It's a dirty, dirty hack on the server to remove the issue before it becomes a problem for JavaScript. It will choke a JSON parser. I used it for getting off the ground, but I do not use this any more. However, I still feel the best answer lies with changing how the server formats the date, for example, ISO as mentioned elsewhere.

A late post, but for those who searched this post.
Imagine this:
[Authorize(Roles = "Administrator")]
[Authorize(Roles = "Director")]
[Authorize(Roles = "Human Resources")]
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult GetUserData(string UserIdGuidKey)
{
if (UserIdGuidKey!= null)
{
var guidUserId = new Guid(UserIdGuidKey);
var memuser = Membership.GetUser(guidUserId);
var profileuser = Profile.GetUserProfile(memuser.UserName);
var list = new {
UserName = memuser.UserName,
Email = memuser.Email ,
IsApproved = memuser.IsApproved.ToString() ,
IsLockedOut = memuser.IsLockedOut.ToString() ,
LastLockoutDate = memuser.LastLockoutDate.ToString() ,
CreationDate = memuser.CreationDate.ToString() ,
LastLoginDate = memuser.LastLoginDate.ToString() ,
LastActivityDate = memuser.LastActivityDate.ToString() ,
LastPasswordChangedDate = memuser.LastPasswordChangedDate.ToString() ,
IsOnline = memuser.IsOnline.ToString() ,
FirstName = profileuser.FirstName ,
LastName = profileuser.LastName ,
NickName = profileuser.NickName ,
BirthDate = profileuser.BirthDate.ToString() ,
};
return Json(list, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
return Redirect("Index");
}
As you can see, I'm utilizing C# 3.0's feature for creating the "Auto" Generics. It's a bit lazy, but I like it and it works.
Just a note: Profile is a custom class I've created for my web application project.

FYI, for anyone using Python on the server side: datetime.datetime().ctime() returns a string that is natively parsable by "new Date()". That is, if you create a new datetime.datetime instance (such as with datetime.datetime.now), the string can be included in the JSON string, and then that string can be passed as the first argument to the Date constructor. I haven't yet found any exceptions, but I haven't tested it too rigorously, either.

Mootools solution:
new Date(Date(result.AppendDts)).format('%x')
Requires mootools-more. Tested using mootools-1.2.3.1-more on Firefox 3.6.3 and IE 7.0.5730.13

var obj = eval('(' + "{Date: \/Date(1278903921551)\/}".replace(/\/Date\((\d+)\)\//gi, "new Date($1)") + ')');
var dateValue = obj["Date"];

Add the jQuery UI plugin in your page:
function DateFormate(dateConvert) {
return $.datepicker.formatDate("dd/MM/yyyy", eval('new ' + dateConvert.slice(1, -1)));
};

What if .NET returns...
return DateTime.Now.ToString("u"); //"2013-09-17 15:18:53Z"
And then in JavaScript...
var x = new Date("2013-09-17 15:18:53Z");

How do I render a DateTime object after it has been passed through JSON? [duplicate]

I have a controller action that effectively simply returns a JsonResult of my model. So, in my method I have something like the following:
return new JsonResult(myModel);
This works well, except for one problem. There is a date property in the model and this appears to be returned in the Json result like so:
"\/Date(1239018869048)\/"
How should I be dealing with dates so they are returned in the format I require? Or how do I handle this format above in script?

Just to expand on casperOne's answer.
The JSON spec does not account for Date values. MS had to make a call, and the path they chose was to exploit a little trick in the javascript representation of strings: the string literal "/" is the same as "\/", and a string literal will never get serialized to "\/" (even "\/" must be mapped to "\\/").
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb299886.aspx#intro_to_json_topic2 for a better explanation (scroll down to "From JavaScript Literals to JSON")
One of the sore points of JSON is the
lack of a date/time literal. Many
people are surprised and disappointed
to learn this when they first
encounter JSON. The simple explanation
(consoling or not) for the absence of
a date/time literal is that JavaScript
never had one either: The support for
date and time values in JavaScript is
entirely provided through the Date
object. Most applications using JSON
as a data format, therefore, generally
tend to use either a string or a
number to express date and time
values. If a string is used, you can
generally expect it to be in the ISO
8601 format. If a number is used,
instead, then the value is usually
taken to mean the number of
milliseconds in Universal Coordinated
Time (UTC) since epoch, where epoch is
defined as midnight January 1, 1970
(UTC). Again, this is a mere
convention and not part of the JSON
standard. If you are exchanging data
with another application, you will
need to check its documentation to see
how it encodes date and time values
within a JSON literal. For example,
Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX uses neither
of the described conventions. Rather,
it encodes .NET DateTime values as a
JSON string, where the content of the
string is /Date(ticks)/ and where
ticks represents milliseconds since
epoch (UTC). So November 29, 1989,
4:55:30 AM, in UTC is encoded as
"\/Date(628318530718)\/".
A solution would be to just parse it out:
value = new Date(parseInt(value.replace("/Date(", "").replace(")/",""), 10));
However I've heard that there is a setting somewhere to get the serializer to output DateTime objects with the new Date(xxx) syntax. I'll try to dig that out.
The second parameter of JSON.parse() accepts a reviver function where prescribes how the value originally produced by, before being returned.
Here is an example for date:
var parsed = JSON.parse(data, function(key, value) {
if (typeof value === 'string') {
var d = /\/Date\((\d*)\)\//.exec(value);
return (d) ? new Date(+d[1]) : value;
}
return value;
});
See the docs of JSON.parse()

Here's my solution in Javascript - very much like JPot's, but shorter (and possibly a tiny bit faster):
value = new Date(parseInt(value.substr(6)));
"value.substr(6)" takes out the "/Date(" part, and the parseInt function ignores the non-number characters that occur at the end.
EDIT: I have intentionally left out the radix (the 2nd argument to parseInt); see my comment below. Also, please note that ISO-8601 dates are preferred over this old format -- so this format generally shouldn't be used for new development.
For ISO-8601 formatted JSON dates, just pass the string into the Date constructor:
var date = new Date(jsonDate); //no ugly parsing needed; full timezone support

There are quite a bit of answers to handle it client side, but you can change the output server side if you desired.
There are a few ways to approach this, I'll start with the basics. You'll have to subclass the JsonResult class and override the ExecuteResult method. From there you can take a few different approaches to change the serialization.
Approach 1:
The default implementation uses the JsonScriptSerializer. If you take a look at the documentation, you can use the RegisterConverters method to add custom JavaScriptConverters. There are a few problems with this though: The JavaScriptConverter serializes to a dictionary, that is it takes an object and serializes to a Json dictionary. In order to make the object serialize to a string it requires a bit of hackery, see post. This particular hack will also escape the string.
public class CustomJsonResult : JsonResult
{
private const string _dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss";
public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
{
if (context == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("context");
}
HttpResponseBase response = context.HttpContext.Response;
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(ContentType))
{
response.ContentType = ContentType;
}
else
{
response.ContentType = "application/json";
}
if (ContentEncoding != null)
{
response.ContentEncoding = ContentEncoding;
}
if (Data != null)
{
JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
// Use your custom JavaScriptConverter subclass here.
serializer.RegisterConverters(new JavascriptConverter[] { new CustomConverter });
response.Write(serializer.Serialize(Data));
}
}
}
Approach 2 (recommended):
The second approach is to start with the overridden JsonResult and go with another Json serializer, in my case the Json.NET serializer. This doesn't require the hackery of approach 1. Here is my implementation of the JsonResult subclass:
public class CustomJsonResult : JsonResult
{
private const string _dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss";
public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
{
if (context == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("context");
}
HttpResponseBase response = context.HttpContext.Response;
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(ContentType))
{
response.ContentType = ContentType;
}
else
{
response.ContentType = "application/json";
}
if (ContentEncoding != null)
{
response.ContentEncoding = ContentEncoding;
}
if (Data != null)
{
// Using Json.NET serializer
var isoConvert = new IsoDateTimeConverter();
isoConvert.DateTimeFormat = _dateFormat;
response.Write(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Data, isoConvert));
}
}
}
Usage Example:
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Index() {
return new CustomJsonResult { Data = new { users=db.Users.ToList(); } };
}
Additional credits:
James Newton-King

Moment.js is an extensive datetime library that also supports this. http://momentjs.com/docs/#/parsing/asp-net-json-dates/
ex: moment("/Date(1198908717056-0700)/")
It might help. plunker output

I found that creating a new JsonResult and returning that is unsatisfactory - having to replace all calls to return Json(obj) with return new MyJsonResult { Data = obj } is a pain.
So I figured, why not just hijack the JsonResult using an ActionFilter:
public class JsonNetFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
{
if (filterContext.Result is JsonResult == false)
{
return;
}
filterContext.Result = new JsonNetResult(
(JsonResult)filterContext.Result);
}
private class JsonNetResult : JsonResult
{
public JsonNetResult(JsonResult jsonResult)
{
this.ContentEncoding = jsonResult.ContentEncoding;
this.ContentType = jsonResult.ContentType;
this.Data = jsonResult.Data;
this.JsonRequestBehavior = jsonResult.JsonRequestBehavior;
this.MaxJsonLength = jsonResult.MaxJsonLength;
this.RecursionLimit = jsonResult.RecursionLimit;
}
public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
{
if (context == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("context");
}
var isMethodGet = string.Equals(
context.HttpContext.Request.HttpMethod,
"GET",
StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
if (this.JsonRequestBehavior == JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet
&& isMethodGet)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(
"GET not allowed! Change JsonRequestBehavior to AllowGet.");
}
var response = context.HttpContext.Response;
response.ContentType = string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.ContentType)
? "application/json"
: this.ContentType;
if (this.ContentEncoding != null)
{
response.ContentEncoding = this.ContentEncoding;
}
if (this.Data != null)
{
response.Write(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(this.Data));
}
}
}
}
This can be applied to any method returning a JsonResult to use JSON.Net instead:
[JsonNetFilter]
public ActionResult GetJson()
{
return Json(new { hello = new Date(2015, 03, 09) }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet)
}
which will respond with
{"hello":"2015-03-09T00:00:00+00:00"}
as desired!
You can, if you don't mind calling the is comparison at every request, add this to your FilterConfig:
// ...
filters.Add(new JsonNetFilterAttribute());
and all of your JSON will now be serialized with JSON.Net instead of the built-in JavaScriptSerializer.

Using jQuery to auto-convert dates with $.parseJSON
Note: this answer provides a jQuery extension that adds automatic ISO and .net date format support.
Since you're using Asp.net MVC I suspect you're using jQuery on the client side. I suggest you read this blog post that has code how to use $.parseJSON to automatically convert dates for you.
Code supports Asp.net formatted dates like the ones you mentioned as well as ISO formatted dates. All dates will be automatically formatted for you by using $.parseJSON().

Ajax communication between the client and the server often involves data in JSON format. While JSON works well for strings, numbers and Booleans it can pose some difficulties for dates due to the way ASP.NET serializes them. As it doesn't have any special representation for dates, they are serialized as plain strings.
As a solution the default serialization mechanism of ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC serializes dates in a special form - /Date(ticks)/- where ticks is the number of milliseconds since 1 January 1970.
This problem can be solved in 2 ways:
client side
Convert the received date string into a number and create a date object using the constructor of the date class with the ticks as parameter.
function ToJavaScriptDate(value) {
var pattern = /Date\(([^)]+)\)/;
var results = pattern.exec(value);
var dt = new Date(parseFloat(results[1]));
return (dt.getMonth() + 1) + "/" + dt.getDate() + "/" + dt.getFullYear();
}
server side
The previous solution uses a client side script to convert the date to a JavaScript Date object. You can also use server side code that serializes .NET DateTime instances in the format of your choice.
To accomplish this task you need to create your own ActionResult and then serialize the data the way you want.
reference :
http://www.developer.com/net/dealing-with-json-dates-in-asp.net-mvc.html

I had the same problem and instead of returning the actual date value I just used ToString("dd MMM yyyy") on it. Then in my javascript I used new Date(datevalue), where datevalue may be "01 Jan 2009".

See this thread:
http://forums.asp.net/p/1038457/1441866.aspx#1441866
Basically, while the Date() format is valid javascript, it is NOT valid JSON (there is a difference). If you want the old format, you will probably have to create a facade and transform the value yourself, or find a way to get at the serializer for your type in the JsonResult and have it use a custom format for dates.

Not the most elegant way but this worked for me:
var ms = date.substring(6, date.length - 2);
var newDate = formatDate(ms);
function formatDate(ms) {
var date = new Date(parseInt(ms));
var hour = date.getHours();
var mins = date.getMinutes() + '';
var time = "AM";
// find time
if (hour >= 12) {
time = "PM";
}
// fix hours format
if (hour > 12) {
hour -= 12;
}
else if (hour == 0) {
hour = 12;
}
// fix minutes format
if (mins.length == 1) {
mins = "0" + mins;
}
// return formatted date time string
return date.getMonth() + 1 + "/" + date.getDate() + "/" + date.getFullYear() + " " + hour + ":" + mins + " " + time;
}

I have been working on a solution to this issue as none of the above answers really helped me. I am working with the jquery week calendar and needed my dates to have time zone information on the server and locally on the page. After quite a bit of digging around, I figured out a solution that may help others.
I am using asp.net 3.5, vs 2008, asp.net MVC 2, and jquery week calendar,
First, I am using a library written by Steven Levithan that helps with dealing with dates on the client side, Steven Levithan's date library. The isoUtcDateTime format is perfect for what I needed. In my jquery AJAX call I use the format function provided with the library with the isoUtcDateTime format and when the ajax call hits my action method, the datetime Kind is set to local and reflects the server time.
When I send dates to my page via AJAX, I send them as text strings by formatting the dates using "ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT'zzzz". This format is easily converted client side using
var myDate = new Date(myReceivedDate);
Here is my complete solution minus Steve Levithan's source, which you can download:
Controller:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public const string DATE_FORMAT = "ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT'zzzz";
public ActionResult Index()
{
ViewData["Message"] = "Welcome to ASP.NET MVC!";
return View();
}
public ActionResult About()
{
return View();
}
public JsonResult GetData()
{
DateTime myDate = DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime();
return new JsonResult { Data = new { myDate = myDate.ToString(DATE_FORMAT) } };
}
public JsonResult ReceiveData(DateTime myDate)
{
return new JsonResult { Data = new { myDate = myDate.ToString(DATE_FORMAT) } };
}
}
Javascript:
<script type="text/javascript">
function getData() {
$.ajax({
url: "/Home/GetData",
type: "POST",
cache: "false",
dataType: "json",
success: function(data) {
alert(data.myDate);
var newDate = cleanDate(data.myDate);
alert(newDate);
sendData(newDate);
}
});
}
function cleanDate(d) {
if (typeof d == 'string') {
return new Date(d) || Date.parse(d) || new Date(parseInt(d));
}
if (typeof d == 'number') {
return new Date(d);
}
return d;
}
function sendData(newDate) {
$.ajax({
url: "/Home/ReceiveData",
type: "POST",
cache: "false",
dataType: "json",
data:
{
myDate: newDate.format("isoUtcDateTime")
},
success: function(data) {
alert(data.myDate);
var newDate = cleanDate(data.myDate);
alert(newDate);
}
});
}
// bind myButton click event to call getData
$(document).ready(function() {
$('input#myButton').bind('click', getData);
});
</script>
I hope this quick example helps out others in the same situation I was in. At this time it seems to work very well with the Microsoft JSON Serialization and keeps my dates correct across timezones.

The better way to handle dates in knockoutjs is to use moment library and handle dates like boss. You can easily deal with dates like /Date(-62135578800000)/. No need to bother of how your serialize date in controller.
function jsonToDate(date,format) {
return moment(date).format(format);
}
use it like
var formattedDate = jsonToDate(date,'MM/DD/YYYY')
momentjs supports lots of date time formats and utility functions on dates.

Format the date within the query.
var _myModel = from _m in model.ModelSearch(word)
select new { date = ((DateTime)_m.Date).ToShortDateString() };
The only problem with this solution is that you won't get any results if ANY of the date values are null. To get around this you could either put conditional statements in your query BEFORE you select the date that ignores date nulls or you could set up a query to get all the results and then loop through all of that info using a foreach loop and assign a value to all dates that are null BEFORE you do your SELECT new.
Example of both:
var _test = from _t in adc.ItemSearchTest(word)
where _t.Date != null
select new { date = ((DateTime)_t.Date).ToShortDateString() };
The second option requires another query entirely so you can assign values to all nulls. This and the foreach loop would have to be BEFORE your query that selects the values.
var _testA = from _t in adc.ItemSearchTest(word)
select _i;
foreach (var detail in _testA)
{
if (detail.Date== null)
{
detail.Date= Convert.ToDateTime("1/1/0001");
}
}
Just an idea which I found easier than all of the javascript examples.

You can use this method:
String.prototype.jsonToDate = function(){
try{
var date;
eval(("date = new " + this).replace(/\//g,''));
return date;
}
catch(e){
return new Date(0);
}
};

I found this to be the easiest way to change it server side.
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Converters;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization;
namespace Website
{
/// <summary>
/// This is like MVC5's JsonResult but it uses CamelCase and date formatting.
/// </summary>
public class MyJsonResult : ContentResult
{
private static readonly JsonSerializerSettings Settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
{
ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver(),
Converters = new List<JsonConverter> { new StringEnumConverter() }
};
public FindersJsonResult(object obj)
{
this.Content = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj, Settings);
this.ContentType = "application/json";
}
}
}

Here's some JavaScript code I wrote which sets an <input type="date"> value from a date passed from ASP.NET MVC.
var setDate = function(id, d) {
if (d !== undefined && d !== null) {
var date = new Date(parseInt(d.replace("/Date(", "").replace(")/", ""), 10));
var day = ('0' + date.getDate()).slice(-2);
var month = ('0' + (date.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2);
var parsedDate = date.getFullYear() + "-" + (month) + "-" + (day);
$(id).val(parsedDate);
}
};
You call this function like so:
setDate('#productCommissionStartDate', data.commissionStartDate);
Where commissionStartDate is the JSON date passed by MVC.

add jquery ui plugin in your page.
function JsonDateFormate(dateFormate, jsonDateTime) {
return $.datepicker.formatDate(dateFormate, eval('new ' + jsonDateTime.slice(1, -1)));
};

Not for nothing, but there is another way. First, construct your LINQ query. Then, construct a query of the Enumerated result and apply whatever type of formatting works for you.
var query = from t in db.Table select new { t.DateField };
var result = from c in query.AsEnumerable() select new { c.DateField.toString("dd MMM yyy") };
I have to say, the extra step is annoying, but it works nicely.

What worked for me was to create a viewmodel that contained the date property as a string. Assigning the DateTime property from the domain model and calling the .ToString() on the date property while assigning the value to the viewmodel.
A JSON result from an MVC action method will return the date in a format compatible with the view.
View Model
public class TransactionsViewModel
{
public string DateInitiated { get; set; }
public string DateCompleted { get; set; }
}
Domain Model
public class Transaction{
public DateTime? DateInitiated {get; set;}
public DateTime? DateCompleted {get; set;}
}
Controller Action Method
public JsonResult GetTransactions(){
var transactions = _transactionsRepository.All;
var model = new List<TransactionsViewModel>();
foreach (var transaction in transactions)
{
var item = new TransactionsViewModel
{
...............
DateInitiated = transaction.DateInitiated.ToString(),
DateCompleted = transaction.DateCompleted.ToString(),
};
model.Add(item);
}
return Json(model, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

Override the controllers Json/JsonResult to return JSON.Net:
This works a treat

Annoying, isn't it ?
My solution was to change my WCF service to get it to return DateTimes in a more readable (non-Microsoft) format. Notice below, the "UpdateDateOriginal", which is WCF's default format of dates, and my "UpdateDate", which is formatted to something more readable.
Here's how to do it:
Changing WCF date format
Hope this helps.

I had a number of issues come up with JSON dates and decided to just get rid of the problem by addressing the date issue in the SQL. Change the date format to a string format
select flddate from tblName
select flddate, convert(varchar(12), flddate, 113) as fldDateStr from tblName
By using the fldDateStr the problem dissappeared and I could still use the date field for sorting or other purposes.

It returns Server Date Format. You need to define your own function.
function jsonDateFormat(jsonDate) {
// Changed data format;
return (new Date(parseInt(jsonDate.substr(6)))).format("mm-dd-yyyy / h:MM tt");
};

0
In your cshtml,
<tr ng-repeat="value in Results">
<td>{{value.FileReceivedOn | mydate | date : 'dd-MM-yyyy'}} </td>
</tr>
In Your JS File, maybe app.js,
Outside of app.controller, add the below filter.
Here the "mydate" is the function which you are calling for parsing the date. Here the "app" is the variable which contains the angular.module
app.filter("mydate", function () {
var re = /\/Date\(([0-9]*)\)\//;
return function (x) {
var m = x.match(re);
if (m) return new Date(parseInt(m[1]));
else return null;
};
});

The easiest one:
var milisegundos = parseInt(data.replace("/Date(", "").replace(")/", ""));
Var newDate = new Date(milisegundos).toLocaleDateString("en-UE");

On searching documents in mongodb collection using ISODate range, I get the error "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime"

I am trying to query MongoDB using the following -
List<BsonDocument> list = NoSqlBusinessEntityBase.LoadByWhereClause("peoplecounting",
string.Concat("{siteid:\"", siteid, "\", locationid:\"", location._id ,"\",
StartTime: {$gte:ISODate(\"",old.ToString("yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss"),"\")},
EndTime: {$lte:ISODate(\"",current.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss"), "\"\")}}"));
The LoadByWhereClause() function is as follows -
public static List<BsonDocument> LoadDataByWhere(string table, string whereClause)
{
var collection = db.GetCollection(table);
QueryDocument whereDoc = new QueryDocument(BsonDocument.Parse(whereClause));
var resultSet = collection.Find(whereDoc);
List<BsonDocument> docs = resultSet.ToList();
if (resultSet.Count() > 0)
{
foreach (BsonDocument doc in docs)
{
doc.Set("_id", doc.GetElement("_id").ToString().Split('=')[1]);
}
return docs;
}
else
{
return null;
}
}
Even though the query runs fine in MongoDB console and returns documents
db.peoplecounting.find({siteid:"53f62abf66455068373665ff", locationid:"53f62bb86645506837366603",
StartTime:{$gte:ISODate("2012-12-03 02:40:00")}, EndTime:{$lte:ISODate("2013-12-03 07:40:00")}}
I get the error when I try to load in C# using the LoadByWhereClause function. The error is String was not recognized as a valid DateTime. while parsing the whereClause.
How can I possibly fix this? I am unable to determine what is going wrong here.

It's not entirely clear, but I suspect the problem may well be how you're formatting the date. This:
old.ToString("yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss")
should almost certainly be this:
old.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")
or possibly
old.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss")
Because:
mm means minutes. You don't want the minutes value between your year and day-of-month; you want the month (MM)
hh means "hour of half-day" (i.e. 1-12). You want the hour of full day, 0-23 (HH)
ISO-8601 uses a T literal to separate the date frmo the time.
I note that your current.ToString is better, but not correct - it gets the month right, but not the hour. The fact that these are inconsistent is a problem to start with - I would advise you to write a separate method to convert a DateTime appropriately.

Convert To Double

Ok im sitting with this issue kind of stupid but I don't know how to google this for the solution.
Lets say i have a database with values inside e.g 1000.00 .
I convert it to double using Convert.ToDouble();
On my PC it works, however on my server it doesn't unless I change to string and replace . with , .
i.e 1000,00 works on the Server but not 1000.00
But if I do Convert 1000,00 to Double I cannot save it again in the database without taking it back to string and replace , with .
How can I overcome this problem.
OS is win7, server is SQL Server 2012.
DataTable DT = SQLServer.ExecuteQueryWithResults("EXEC CalculateMonthlyBallance");
foreach (DataRow row in DT.Rows)
{
ClientCompany CC = Data.Companies.First(C => C.CompanyID == row[0].ToString());
Finance Saldo = new Finance(CC.CompanyID, "Monthly Saldo", "Monthly Saldo", 0, 0, new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, 1), F_Type.Saldo, -1);
double rv = row[3].ToDouble();
MessageBox.Show("Company ID : " + CC.CompanyID.ToString() + " " + rv.ToString());
if (rv > 0)
{
Saldo.Debit = rv;
}
else if (row[3].ToDouble() < 0)
{
Saldo.Credit = -rv;
}
MessageBox.Show(Saldo.Debit + " " + Saldo.Credit);
CC.Finances = RetrieveFinances(CC.CompanyID).ToList();
if (CC.Finances.Count(S => (S.F_Type == F_Type.Saldo) && (S.Date == new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, 1))) == 0)
{
CC.Finances.Add(Saldo);
CaptureFinancial(Saldo);
}
}

The locale setting, specifically the regional settings that govern what symbol is used as a decimal point, are influencing the conversion. To avoid that, you need to perform a culture invariant conversion so that the locale setting on your machine does not play a part. For example:
double value = double.Parse(stringValue, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
That said, I do wonder why you are storing floating point values as strings in the first place. It's best to convert user input into its natural form at the earliest possible moment, and only convert back to string as late as possible.

See Convert.ToDouble(string,CultureInfo)

This is because of your CultureInfo. Apparently, your PC is using periods for decimal notation, while your server is using commas. if you try to convert one of them using the other method, you get this issue.
Solution: Convert.ToDouble() has an extra overload which allows you to pass a cultureInfo for conversion. Or you can just save your variable in the database as a float or decimal.

In C# is there anyway to convert a city name to its TimeZone name (Tokyo --> Tokyo Standard Time)?

I have a list of cities (New York, London, etc . .) and I need to do some timezone conversion but i see most of the APIs require that you know the time zone name (such as Eastern Standard Time, Tokyo Standard Time, etc).
Is there anyway to convert the city name into its appropriate TimeZone name ? (pass in New York and it returns "Eastern Standard Time")

Not aware of anything like that built into C# but you can use Google Maps API for that:
1) Get the long/lat of the city: http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=New%20York,%20CA&sensor=false
2) Now use those long/lat to get the timezone: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/timezone/json?location=43.2994285,-74.21793260000001&timestamp=1362209227&sensor=false
Example Code:
public TimeZoneResponse ConvertCityToTimeZoneName(string location)
{
TimeZoneResponse response = new TimeZoneResponse();
var plusName = location.Replace(" ", "+");
var address = "http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=" + plusName + "&sensor=false";
var result = new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString(address);
var latLongResult = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GoogleGeoCodeResponse>(result);
if (latLongResult.status == "OK")
{
var timeZoneRespontimeZoneRequest = "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/timezone/json?location=" + latLongResult.results[0].geometry.location.lat + "," + latLongResult.results[0].geometry.location.lng + "&timestamp=1362209227&sensor=false";
var timeZoneResponseString = new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString(timeZoneRespontimeZoneRequest);
var timeZoneResult = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TimeZoneResult>(timeZoneResponseString);
if (timeZoneResult.status == "OK")
{
response.TimeZoneName = timeZoneResult.timeZoneName;
response.Success = true;
return response;
}
}
return response;
}

You could use the Free time Zone Database which is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. You can find information about it here:
http://timezonedb.com/
You could use the SQL one as-is, or you could pull in the sql database into some classes in your application...

EarthTools.org has a free webservice you can query by lat/long like:
http://www.earthtools.org/timezone/<latitude>/<longitude>
Example for New York:
http://www.earthtools.org/timezone-1.1/40.71417/-74.00639
But no, I'm not aware of any baked-in class that does this.

Using C# TimeZoneInfo you can do this
TimeZoneInfo.GetSystemTimeZones()
.Where(k=>k.DisplayName.Substring(k.DisplayName.IndexOf(')')+2).ToLower().IndexOf("tokyo") >= 0)
.ToList()
Explanation:
I used the display name to determin the city foreach timezone which comes in the following format for example "(UTC+02:00) Beirut". then take the index ")" + 2 and take the next string without the leading space, then do the query.
Will return the matching timezones by city.

The closest thing you can get in .net framework is TimeZonInfo.GetSystemTimeZones().
And please be aware that there is not one to one mapping in your case, for example, Sydney, one in Australia, and the other in Canada.