Changing DATETIME format in datatable column without using loop in C#

Question

I have a Data Table that has a column 'subscribeDate' that has dates in MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss format. I would like to change all the dates in this column to MM-dd-yyyy hh:mm:ss format. Is there a way that I can do it without running a loop?

Answer 1

I would hope that the values in the DataTable are of type DateTime or DateTimeOffset . Assuming that's the case, they don't have a format. They're just dates and times. How you convert them to a string is up to you.

If they're not already in an appropriate data type, you should try to change how you obtain the data to start with. Convert it from a string format to a more appropriate data type as early as you possibly can, and only convert it back to a string when you really need to.

You haven't explained how you're displaying the DataTable , but most ways that I'm aware of allow you to specify a format string - that's where you would specify your MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss format. (Note HH rather than hh , to get 24 hours.)

Answer 2

You should be able to do that, if there is not some culture restrictions in your app (I don't know how works your application) with convert method. Somethign like this:

myTable.Columns["Date"].Convert(
    val => DateTime.Parse(val.ToString()).ToString("dd/MMM/yyyy"));

Where convert function you can find in Is it possible to format a date column of a datatable?