Date Format Specifier In C#

Introduction

The Date Format Specifier can be used to represent a date in various ways. Representation of a date can be; done by one of two Date Format Specifiers, that is, a Short Date Format Specifier or a Long Date Format Specifier.

The Short Date Format Specifier

The Format Specifier for a short date is "d," which is used to display the date as a short pattern; we can use various cultures so that the; format of dates displayed will vary for each culture value. The default culture is "en-US," which is used to display the date in the format "mm/dd/yyyy"; the "fr-FR" culture is used to display the date in the format of "dd/mm/yyyy," and the "ja-JP" culture is used to display the date in the "yyyy/mm/dd" format. Now we can better understand this concept by implementing this in a console application and see the output. In this example, I; use a system current date using the DateTime.Now method and display this date; in various format strings; see.

namespace DateTimeFormatString
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Get the system current date
            DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
            // Display the date with the default culture
            Console.WriteLine("The date default pattern (en-US) denotes date in the format of mm/dd/yyyy : \n " + dt.ToString("d") + "\n\n");
            // Display date when applying the culture fr-FR
            CultureInfo cultureInfo = new CultureInfo("fr-FR");
            Console.WriteLine("The date pattern (fr-FR) denotes date in the format of dd/mm/yyyy : \n " + dt.ToString("d", cultureInfo) + "\n\n");
            // Display date when applying the culture ja-JP
            CultureInfo cultureInfo1 = new CultureInfo("ja-JP");
            Console.WriteLine("The date pattern (ja-JP) denotes date in the format of yyyy/mm/dd : \n " + dt.ToString("d", cultureInfo1) + "\n\n");
            // Display date when applying the Specific Culture de-DE
            Console.WriteLine("The date pattern (de-DE) denotes date in the format of mm.dd.yyyy : \n " + dt.ToString("d", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("de-DE")));
        }
    }
}

Output

Now if we want to display a particular date or some other date, not the current date, in various formats, so for we specify that date and display it with a different Format Specifier.

namespace DateTimeFormatString
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Get any date
            DateTime dt = new DateTime(2008, 4, 10);
            // Display the date with the default culture
            Console.WriteLine("The date default pattern (en-US) denotes date in the format of mm/dd/yyyy : \n " + dt.ToString("d") + "\n\n");

            // Display date when applying the culture fr-FR
            CultureInfo cultureInfo = new CultureInfo("fr-FR");
            Console.WriteLine("The date pattern (fr-FR) denotes date in the format of dd/mm/yyyy : \n " + dt.ToString("d", cultureInfo) + "\n\n");
            // Display date when applying the culture ja-JP
            CultureInfo cultureInfo1 = new CultureInfo("ja-JP");
            Console.WriteLine("The date pattern (ja-JP) denotes date in the format of yyyy/mm/dd : \n " + dt.ToString("d", cultureInfo1) + "\n\n");
            // Display date when applying the Specific Culture de-DE
            Console.WriteLine("The date pattern (de-DE) denotes date in the format of mm.dd.yyyy : \n " + dt.ToString("d", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("de-DE")));
        }
    }
}

In the above example, only the date is different, so the output will be similar to the other one above, except the different display specifier is applied to a different date.

Now if I want to see how many types I can display the short date Format Specifier, I can use the GetAllDateTimePatterns method of the DateTimeFormatInfo class.

namespace DateTimeFormatString
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("'d' standard format string:");
            foreach (var customString in DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.GetAllDateTimePatterns('d'))
                Console.WriteLine(" {0}", customString);
        }
    }
}

Output

The Long Date Format Specifier

The Format Specifier for long dates is "D," which is used to display the date as a long pattern. In this also, we can use many different cultures so that the data will be displayed; in different formats. In this, the date is displayed; by; specifying the month name as a word, also the day of that date. The following example shows how to display the date as a long pattern with; various cultures.

namespace DateTimeFormatString
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Get the system's current date
            DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
            // Get a different date using DateTime
            DateTime dt1 = new DateTime(2008, 4, 10);
            Console.WriteLine("**********Display the long date pattern with the system's current date************\n\n");
            // Display the long default date pattern "en-US"
            Console.WriteLine("The default long date pattern: \n" + dt.ToString("D") + "\n\n");

            // Define a culture "de-DE" and display its date format
            CultureInfo culture1 = new CultureInfo("de-DE");
            Console.WriteLine("The long date pattern with de-DE culture: \n" + dt.ToString("D", culture1) + "\n\n");
            // Define a new culture with CreateSpecificCulture method of CultureInfo class and display its long date pattern
            Console.WriteLine("The long Date pattern with pt-BR culture: \n" + dt.ToString("D", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("pt-BR")) + "\n\n");
            Console.WriteLine("The long date pattern with es-MX culture: \n" + dt.ToString("D", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("es-MX")) + "\n\n");
            Console.WriteLine("**********Display the long date pattern with some other date************\n\n");
            // Display the long default date pattern "en-US"
            Console.WriteLine("The default long date pattern: \n" + dt1.ToString("D") + "\n\n");
            // Define a culture "de-DE" and display its date format
            CultureInfo culture = new CultureInfo("de-DE");
            Console.WriteLine("The long date pattern with de-DE culture: \n" + dt1.ToString("D", culture) + "\n\n");
            // Define a new culture with CreateSpecificCulture method of CultureInfo class and display its long date pattern
            Console.WriteLine("The

Output

Summary

In this article, I explained how to use Date Format Specifiers in C#.