Formatting a date using C# in an MVC3 application

Question

I have a model with a DateTime property:

public DateTime EndTime { get; set; }

In my controller, I assign that property to a value returned from my database:

aModel.EndTime = auction.EndTime.Value;

And in my View:

<p class="time">@item.EndTime</p>

Currently the date is returned as:

9/12/2011 --> Month / Day / Year

I want it to display as:

12/9/2011 --> Day / Month / Year

I'm sure the application is displaying the date according to the servers settings, but I do not wish to change that. How can I display the date like I want to in the second example?

BZink · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 15:00:36Z

3

<p class="time">@String.Format("{0:dd/MM/yyyy}",item.EndTime)</p>

answered Sep 13, 2011 at 15:00

BZink

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3 Comments

Chris Over a year ago

From memory (and other answers) that should be MM rather than mm I think.

BZink Over a year ago

Yeah. You're right. just changed it. Was trying to get the answer in too quickly! ha.

Chris Over a year ago

I mainly noticed because I once deployed production code with mm instead of MM and ever since then I've been hyper-aware. ;-)

musefan · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 15:08:21Z

2

The quick and easy way...

<p class="time">@item.EndTime.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy")</p>

I would suggest you store the format string as a config value though so you can easily change it later... or add a way for the user to set their preference

Maybe even do some extension method work...

Helper class

public static class ExtensionMethods
{
   public static string ToClientDate(this DateTime dt)
   {
      string configFormat = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DateFormat"];
      return dt.ToString(configFormat);
   }
}

Config File

<appSettings>
    <add key="DateFormat" value="dd/MM/yyyy" />
</appSettings>

View

<p class="time">@item.EndTime.ToClientDate()</p>

Make sure you View can see the ExtensionMethods class, add a "Using" statement if needed

edited Sep 13, 2011 at 15:08

answered Sep 13, 2011 at 15:00

musefan

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Comments

Blindy · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 15:01:19Z

1

Use the ToString method in your view:

<p class="time">@item.EndTime.ToString("d/M/yyyy")</p>

answered Sep 13, 2011 at 15:01

Blindy

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1 Comment

Only Bolivian Here Over a year ago

That simple huh. Man C# is fantastic.

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