How to format date in C# using SqlDataReader

Question

I have a console project that retrieves some data from a database. It is using a connection string. When I run the project I get date as 1/1/2010 12:00:00 AM , but I want to get only the date - like 1/1/2010 .

The code looks like this:

string sql = "SELECT * FROM Employees";

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, sqlConnection);

SqlDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader(); 

// this is for header
string _fname = "First Name"; 
string _lname = "Last Name"; 
string _dob = "DOB"; 

Console.WriteLine("{0} | {1} | {2}", _fname.PadRight(10), _lname.PadRight(10), _dob.PadRight(10));

while (dr.Read())
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0} | {1} | {2}",
                      dr["FirstName"].ToString().PadRight(10),
                      dr["LastName"].ToString().PadRight(10),
                      // Below is what I want to format.
                      dr["DOB"].ToString().PadRight(10)
}

dr.Close();

I tried:

dr["DOB"].ToString(MM-dd-yyyy).PadRight(10)

dr["DOB"].Date.ToString(MM-dd-yyyy).PadRight(10)

However none of them works.

When reading data using database, how do I format date?

Answer 1

Please try with below code snippet.

Old code:-

dr["DOB"].ToString().PadRight(10)

New code:-

Option 1

dr.GetDateTime(columnIndex).ToString("dd/MM/yyyy");

Option 2

Convert.ToDateTime(dr["DOB"]).ToString("dd/MM/yyyy")

Answer 2

You can also get it converted from SQL. Update the query:

SELECT *, CONVERT(VARCHAR(10),DOB, 103) as FormattedDOB from Employees

and your c#:

dr["FormattedDOB"].ToString().PadRight(10);

Answer 3

Why dont you try this:

String.Format("{0:MM-dd-yyyy}", <YourDate>)

Answer 4

You can use custom date and time formats to achieve your desired Format. Your code could look like so:

var sql = "SELECT * FROM Employees";
var cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, sqlConnection);
SqlDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader(); 
var _fname = "First Name";
var _lname = "Last Name"; 
var _dob = "DOB"; 
Console.WriteLine("{0} | {1} | {2}", _fname.PadRight(10),_lname.PadRight(10),_dob.PadRight(10));
while (dr.Read())
{
   dt = (DateTime)dt["DOB"];
   Console.WriteLine("{0} | {1} | {2}",
   dr["FirstName"].ToString().PadRight(10),
   dr["LastName"].ToString().PadRight(10),
   dt.ToString("MM/dd/yy").PadRight(10));
}
dr.Close();

Possibly the return value of dr["DOB"] is string and not a date. in this case you could convert it to date and then .ToString("MM/dd/yy") or you could simply find the index of " " and then split the string like so:

var str = (string)dr["DOB"]
Console.Write(str.Split(' ')[0]);

This will return: 1/1/2010

Answer 5

You Need to parse string value to DateTime first. Try Something like this

string datestr ="1/1/2010 12:00:00 AM";
DateTime dateTime;
var ds = DateTime.TryParse(datestr,out dateTime);
string outstr = dateTime.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy");