Here's another simple tip, but it does encapsulate some of the functionality needed to format a DateTime (or a string) to a particular string format. First, from the documentation, here's some examples of the DateTime formatting:
Column 1: Format String, Column 2: The format of the date
' d :08/17/2000
' D :Thursday, August 17, 2000
' f :Thursday, August 17, 2000 16:32
' F :Thursday, August 17, 2000 16:32:32
' g :08/17/2000 16:32
' G :08/17/2000 16:32:32
' m :August 17
' r :Thu, 17 Aug 2000 23:32:32 GMT
' s :2000-08-17T16:32:32
' t :16:32
' T :16:32:32
' u :2000-08-17 23:32:32Z
' U :Thursday, August 17, 2000 23:32:32
' y :August, 2000
' dddd, MMMM dd yyyy :Thursday, August 17 2000
' ddd, MMM d "'"yy :Thu, Aug 17 '00
' dddd, MMMM dd :Thursday, August 17
' M/yy :8/00
' dd-MM-yy :17-08-00
First, we'll need a function to verify the string we have is a valid date.
public static bool ValidDate(string checkDate)
{
try
{
DateTime dtTemp;
dtTemp = DateTime.Parse(checkDate);
return true;
}
catch
{
return false;
}
}
The ValidDate function takes a string, and returns true if the value is a valid date, or false if it isn't.
Next, here's the function for formatting the date:
public static string FormatDateTimeCustom(string valDate, string formatString)
{
if (ValidDate(valDate))
return Convert.ToDateTime(valDate).ToString(formatString);
else
return valDate;
}
valDate = the string to format
formatString = the format style as listed earlier
That's it for today!