C#: How would I get the current time into a string?

Question

I'd just like to point out something in these answers. In a date/time format string, '/' will be replaced with whatever the user's date separator is, and ':' will be replaced with whatever the user's time separator is. That is, if I've defined my date separator to be '.' (in the Regional and Language Options control panel applet, "intl.cpl"), and my time separator to be '?' (just pretend I'm crazy like that), then

DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy h:mm tt")

would return

01.05.2009 6?01 PM

In most cases, this is what you want, because you want to respect the user's settings. If, however, you require the format be something specific (say, if it's going to parsed back out by somebody else down the wire), then you need to escape these special characters:

DateTime.Now.ToString("MM\\/dd\\/yyyy h\\:mm tt")

or

DateTime.Now.ToString(@"MM\/dd\/yyyy h\:mm tt")

which would now return

01/05/2009 6:01 PM

---

EDIT:

Then again, if you really want to respect the user's settings, you should use one of the standard date/time format strings, so that you respect not only the user's choices of separators, but also the general format of the date and/or time.

DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString()
DateTime.Now.ToString("d")

Both would return "1/5/2009" using standard US options, or "05/01/2009" using standard UK options, for instance.

DateTime.Now.ToLongDateString()
DateTime.Now.ToString("D")

Both would return "Monday, January 05, 2009" in US locale, or "05 January 2009" in UK.

DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString()
DateTime.Now.ToString("t");

"6:01 PM" in US, "18:01" in UK.

DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString()
DateTime.Now.ToString("T");

"6:01:04 PM" in US, "18:01:04" in UK.

DateTime.Now.ToString()
DateTime.Now.ToString("G");

"1/5/2009 6:01:04 PM" in US, "05/01/2009 18:01:04" in UK.

Many other options are available. See docs for standard date and time format strings and custom date and time format strings.

You can use format strings as well.

string time = DateTime.Now.ToString("hh:mm:ss"); // includes leading zeros
string date = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd/MM/yy"); // includes leading zeros

or some shortcuts if the format works for you

string time = DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString();
string date = DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString();

Either should work.

Method to get system Date and time in a single string

public static string GetTimeDate()
{
    string DateTime = System.DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");   
    return DateTime;
} 

sample OUTPUT :-16-03-2015 07:45:15

DateTime.Now.ToString("h:mm tt")
DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy")

Here are some common format strings

Be careful when accessing DateTime.Now twice, as it's possible for the calls to straddle midnight and you'll get wacky results on rare occasions and be left scratching your head.

To be safe, you should assign DateTime.Now to a local variable first if you're going to use it more than once:

var now = DateTime.Now;
var time = now.ToString("hh:mm:ss tt");
var date = now.ToString("MM/dd/yy");

Note the use of lower case "hh" do display hours from 00-11 even in the afternoon, and "tt" to show AM/PM, as the question requested. If you want 24 hour clock 00-23, use "HH".

string t = DateTime.Now.ToString("h/m/s tt");
string t2 = DateTime.Now.ToString("hh:mm:ss tt");
string d = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yy");

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx