how to add a date (DateTime.now) to a mySql database in C#

Question

I have been researching on how to insert a date into my mySql database using the visual studio. I understand the error that mySql only accepts a certain format and I've been browsing both the net and other similar topics about this here on stackoverflow... but almost all the examples have the date as a pre-made string that is changed using the parseexact conversion

It looks something like this:

result = DateTime.ParseExact(nowstring, format, provider)

But the thing is I'm trying this with a dateTime.now function. I want a realtime dateTime added to the database each time my program does something.. well from what I researched, it should look something like this..

string nowstring, format;
                DateTime result;
                System.Globalization.CultureInfo provider = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
                format = "yyyy-MM-dd";
                nowstring = DateTime.Now.ToString();
                result = DateTime.ParseExact(nowstring, format, provider);

I guess I'm just doing something wrong since we havent tackled this at school yet or im just simply missing something elementary. Either way, I'd glady appreciate your help.

Answer 1

If your column that you want to insert DATE or DATETIME type , you don't need any of these formatting and parsing operations.

Just pass your DateTime.Now directly to your parameterized insert query to your table.

MySQL doesn't save your DateTime values as a character for these column types. It keeps them as a binary which humans can't read. You can see them with 'YYYY-MM-DD' or 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' format as a representation in your database.

For example;

using(var con = new MySqlConnection(conString))
using(var cmd = con.CreateCommand())
{
   cmd.CommandText = "insert into tbl_operators (DateJoined) values (@date)";
   cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@date", DateTime.Now);
   con.Open();
   cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
}