C# - Get XElement.Value in a custom datetime format - c#

Here is my problem:
I have a XElement storing a DateTime, and I want to get the Value property returning the DateTime in a custom format.
I was wondering if there is a way to include a IFormatProvider in the XElement.

I think you are mixing things here. The XElement always stores its value as a string. To get a custom date format, you need to convert this string into a DateTime object first and then call ToString with the format you want to have.

Related

Date Time Format is not Formatting

I need have this format :
aaaa-mm-jjThh:mm:sszzzzzz
And put it in a XML property "DateTime" type.
So, I did it :
var xmlObj= new xmlObj.tHeader();
xmlObj.prop = DateTime.ParseExact(DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'Z'"), "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'Z'", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Console.WriteLine(xmlObj.prop);
The Console.WriteLine instruction return : 03/05/2016 15:43:10
I don't understand why the property remove the format.
In the XSD, this property is waiting a datetime format.
Any ideas?
EDIT :
Ok, on the command result, I see a default format but If convert my XML object to File, the format is correct :
Very strange... but it's ok now. Many thanks to all of you
You are calling DateTime.ParseExact, which parses a string into a DateTime object. Just drop that part and assign the result of ToString directly to xmlObj.prop, or assign the DateTime object directly (if that's what it's looking for).
Edit:
To address your edit, your XML file is generated correctly. However, when you output the DateTime prop to the console, it uses the default string format for a date. You can format that with ToString() if you want to.
You try this:
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("s") + "Z");
Your format is wrong in parse, if you want yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssz format then you have to convert it as string otherwise, it will represent standard datetime, try this
xmlObj.prop = DateTime.ParseExact(DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ"), "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Console.WriteLine(xmlObj.prop.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssz"));

C# DateTime to be copied without format getting changed

I have a date and time which should be copied to DateTime object without changing its format.
Is there a way to resolve it?
Pls see the code below
string dateTime = "07/20/11 14:40:28";
DateTime copyDateTime = Convert.ToDateTime(dateTime);
string dateTime2 = copyDateTime.ToString();
Output:
{7/20/2011 2:40:28 PM}
If you notice the output, it got changed to PM. I want it as it is. How to get it?
EDIT:
I want dateTime2 to have the value exactly as it was for dateTime.
Format is not intrinsically associated with the DateTime. Format is simply a display property.
If you need to display it in your preferred format than simply call:
Console.WriteLine(copyDateTime.ToString("G"));
See MSDN for a complete list of standard format strings.
Before outputting, you need to convert the DateTime back into a string. By default, it simply calls "ToString" which uses the default DateTime format configured for the current user/locale.
Use ToString and specify a format to convert the datetime back into a String, then you can control the format.

How to create XElement representing date in DateTime as type xs:Date

I'm using XDocument to create an XML file, as follows:
var d = DateTime.Now;
var xDocument = new XDocument(new XElement("ThisIsADate", d));
However, the resulting XML represents the date d using the xs:datetime format (e.g. "2012-05-11T00:00:00"). That is, it includes time information.
However, my XML is meant to match my XML Schema, which defines the element as being of type "xs:date". Consequently, the file is rejected when validated against the schema, because of the extra time information.
How can I fix this? I know I could just format the date myself using ToString() with a format, but this can't be the "right" way to do it, surely. I can't be expected to know how to format a date as a valid XML date - that's the job of the XML-related parts of the framework.
Edit: please note that I do know how to format a date using ToString(), and I also know what format string would give me the right result. That's not the answer I'm looking for. I'm looking for a function/method/class that understands what an xs:date (etc.) is, and that supports those kinds of encodings.
To be clear, I'm not looking to "get it done", I'm looking to "do it right". And re-inventing the XML wheel is not "doing it right" in my book.
As it already has been pointed out LINQ to XML is unable to produce a DateTime value using the the xs:date format. A DateTime round-trips in LINQ to XML using the xs:dateTime format and .NET does not a have a date-only type so it is not a suprise that the designers of LINQ to XML decided to only use xs:dateTime to not complicate the API.
The only option is to format the date as a string giving you full control of the format. To correctly use the xs:date format you need to convert the DateTime to a string using this code:
d.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
Using ToShortDateString and/or not specifying a CultureInfo will not produce the desired result.
I fixed this problem using the following class for DateElements
private class XDateElement : XElement
{
public XDateElement(XName name, DateTime Date) :
base(name, Date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
{ }
}
The advantage of using a class like this is, that you have the specific date conversion only in one place.
var d = DateTime.Now;
var xDocument = new XDocument(new XDateElement("ThisIsADate", d));
There seems to be some confusion XML or as such the XElement will be storing the Value as a string. What is stored is more a work of the Xml Schema Validator.
Hence when you have to represent Date you will have to pass in the string version of the Date part you can use the ToShortDateString() or custom format in ToString().
When you are passing the DateTime instance its just calling the ToString() which contains the Time component too.
Hope this helps you.
A DateTime always has both date and time components. So the trick is tell that DateTime to output only it's date component. When you reconstitute the date on the receiving end, the time will default to midnight.
var XDocument = new XDocument(new XElement("ThisIsADate", DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString()));
The default form is M/d/yyyy, but it still may not be in the right format! I don't know what your schema expects.
So use ToString("yourFormatStringHere")
var XDocument = new XDocument(new XElement("ThisIsADate", DateTime.Now.ToString("M-dd-yyyy")));
If you want to get really fancy, that is, write robust code... Pull the format string from your schema document and reference that in the ToString() method rather than having an explicit but redundant format string.

Retrieve format of date from date value

I am receiving some data into a variable of type object. In certain cases this data are date values. For that data, I would like to convert this to a string and return it in the same format as it was passed. In some cases, the object could be a datetime, in others a date only or time only values.
As soon as I convert the object to a date or a string, it is obviously given a time of midnight which in my scenario may be a valid time (so I cannot test to see if the time is midnight in which case I could deduce that it would have been a date only date value, nor can I use regex on it as there will always be a time element).
Intellisense shows me it correctly, ie in the format I am wishing to return the value.
Is there an easy way to achieve this (hopefully without using reflection)
Many thx
Simon
Your question is a little unclear but I think you're looking for something like this:
DateTime result;
if (DateTime.TryParse(value, out result))
{
// use result here
}
In the above code value is a string that represents the data coming in. The code will only enter the if block if the string is a valid DateTime. At which point you can do the processing you need on it.
Im not sure i understand the question but i would recommend you to take a look at this conversion example on MSDN, and see the Documentation of the DateTime Structur it contains a lot of Conversion/Formatting Methods i hope it helps.
There are many way to do formatting on the datetime and one of the simple way is fetch the data from the required table in the desired format. Like here you need to display the date and if you your format is dd/MM/yyyy then try this
select Convert(varchar(10),StartDate,103) as StartDateformat from table where filtername=#filtername
use this link to find other format Cast and Convert
From local variable to DateTime Conversion
DateTime todateformat = Convert.ToDateTime(txttodate.Text.Trim());
From DateTime to local variable Conversion in specific format
string startdate = todateformat.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss");

.NET DateTime to BizTalk DateTime

I have date in this format "1999-05-31T13:20:00.000-05:00" I want to add some hours or days to it . BizTalk expects same datetime format how can i pass it as Datetime in that format ? No string . Date time with same format as source date.
You should be able to do something like this to get it into a DateTimeOffset object. After that you can call whatever methods you want on it.
DateTimeOffset dateTime = DateTimeOffset.Parse( "1999-05-31T13:20:00.000-05:00" );
To get the value back just use a formatting string.
dateTime.ToString( "O" ); //this should be the same format as you started with
Here are some other options http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1.aspx
Here is a link to the DateTimeOffset structure
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb351654.aspx
I hope this helps.
The DateTime object is format-independent (for the most part). So whether or not it starts in the format you list or not doesn't matter. You can always get it back into that format (using the ToString("o") function). But that's as a string (when format matters).
After a quick search, it looks like you must be talking about string format, even though you said no string. So the other answer or the ToString("o"); part of mine is relevant.

Categories

Resources