Displaying DateTime Object as Desired

DateTime is a common type we deal with frequently in the development of C#-ASP.NET project. As a result, how to display a DateTime object properly is the knowledge we have to know as a web service developer.

In the following paragraphs, I made a summary of formatting DateTime object in several circumstances to get it displayed as needed:

• Format DateTime string retrieved from database and to be binded to Data Controls.
  
  <ASP:BoundColumn DataField="JoinTime" DataFormatString="{0:yyyy-MM-dd}" >
  </ASP:BoundColumn>
  <ASP:BoundColumn DataField="CheckoutTime" DataFormatString="{0:yyyy-MM-dd HH24:mm:ss}">
  </asp:BoundColumn>

• Statement in the CodeFile to get a DateTime string.
  
  e.Item.Cell[0].Text = Convert.ToDateTime(e.Item.Cell[0].Text).ToShortDateString();

• With the help of String class.
  
  String.Format( "yyyy-MM-dd ", theDateTimeObj);

• With the help of Convert method.
  
  Convert.ToDateTime("2008-12-09").ToString;
  Convert.ToDateTime(dr["PubDate"]).ToShortDateString();

• ToString method of DateTime class.
  
  DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddhhmmss");
  DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy/MM/dd hh:mm:ss");

• Show only year and month.
  
  DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"starttime","{0:yyyy-MM}");

Certainly, there are more situations when you have to format a DateTime object, and the rules could be deduced from above.