How to compare a date from sql database with current date to allow access page in C# mvc5

Question

This is probably a very basic question for you guys, but I'm new to this world and try to learn everyday. I have added some columns in the standard dbo.AspNetUsers table. One of them is a date which I want to compare with the current DateTime. The date from the database needs to be in the future, otherwise it should not be allowed to view the page.

I've tried somethings in my controllers:

public string LicenseDate { get; set; }
public string CurrentDate = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");

public ActionResult Index()
if ((LicenseDate.Date - DateTime.Today).Days > 1)
    { do someting }
else
    return RedirectToAction("../Home/Buy");

Can someone point me in the right direction? thanks!

Answer 1

I'd just use DateTime.Compare :

if (DateTime.Compare(DateTime.Parse(LicenseDate.Date), DateTime.UtcNow) > 0)
{ 
   //License Date Later 
}
else
{ 
   //License Date Equal To Or Earlier
}

Assuming LicenseDate is a valid Date string.

Answer 2

public System.DateTime current = System.DateTime.Now;
public System.DateTime Licensedate {get; set}

if( Licensedate.Subtract(current).TotalDays >1 ){
    //... do somethink
}

Subtract Method which returns TimeSpan that has TotalDays property

Answer 3

A few things to note:

• You need curly braces on your function
• You need to convert the strings to dates before comparison
• You can just use a DateTime.Compare or a DateTime.Subtract to do what you want

So, the following updated code should get you closer:

public string LicenseDate { get; set; }
public string CurrentDate = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");

public ActionResult Index() {
   var licenseDateTime = Convert.ToDateTime(LicenseDate);
   if ((licenseDateTime.Subtract(DateTime.Today)).TotalDays > 1)
   {
       // do something
   } else {
       return RedirectToAction("../Home/Buy");
   }
}

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

Thanks everybody for your suggestions! I tried some options and I don't have any bugs left. But it is not working since I think the LicenseDate is not 'loaded' from the database well. It looks like the current date is compared with the current date :) I made sure that my field in the database is a Datetime type and is declared at the start:

public DateTime LicenseDate { get; set; }

This is how my table looks like:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[AspNetUsers] (
    [Id]            NVARCHAR (128) NOT NULL,
    [UserName]      NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [PasswordHash]  NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [SecurityStamp] NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Name]          NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Surname]       NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Company]       NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Street]        NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [ZIPcode]       NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [City]          NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Country]       NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Phone]         NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Email]         NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [Discriminator] NVARCHAR (128) NOT NULL,
    [IPAddress]     NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL,
    [RegisterDate]  DATETIME       NULL,
    [LicenseDate]   DATETIME       NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_dbo.AspNetUsers] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([Id] ASC)
);

Thanks again for looking into this.