C Sharp DateTime Format

Question

UPDATE This looks to be a bug in Windows 7. I tested the same scenario with Windows 8 and I cannot replicate this there. Please see the MS Bug Report that I posted on this issue if you want more information. Thank you again to all that helped.

UPDATE 2 The error happens on Server 2008 R2 as well (Kind of expected that)

Original Submission

Using the examples on the following page Date Formats I am able to control the format of my date. However, one of my clients, using Windows 7, modified their calendar to display their short date like this 'ddd MM/dd/yy', see the image for the settings. .

This displays the clock like this .

This works fine except when I use a date on their machine. When I format the date like the following...

String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yy}", dt); //the result is 06 04 13, notice the spaces

If I take off the ddd to display the day of week in the calendar settings and use the same format option I see the following...

String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yy}", dt); //the result is 06/04/13, this time it has forward slashes

The .ToShortDateString() option on the date gives me "Tue 06/04/13" and crashes when going into a database. This is how the issue was found.

Outside of hard coding the format, i.e. joining the month to the forward slash to the day etc, does anyone know of what else I can try to get this to work?

Answer 1

It sounds like you are formatting the date as a string in order to send it in via some SQL. Have you considered using command parameters for this instead of string formatting?

Answer 2

Using the InvariantCulture should work. I created a test console app to check it. The code changes the thread's current culture to be the Invariant one:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
            /// Displays '06 04 13'

        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:MM/dd/yy}", System.DateTime.Now));

        System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;

            /// Displays '06/04/13'

        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0:MM/dd/yy}", System.DateTime.Now));

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}