DateTime.ToString formatting

Question

I'm displaying localized short dates by providing culture info to DateTime.ToString method. By now I was using

x.ToString("d", ci); // 23.12.2000

that displays short date. But now I would like to also include abbreviated day name. I tried

x.ToString("ddd d", ci); // pon 23

but now d becomes day specifier instead of short date format so instead of day name and short date I only get day name and day number.

How do I convince formatter to display day along with predefined culture short date format?

Answer 1

How about:

string.Format(ci, "{0:ddd} {0:d}", x)

Answer 2

The "standard" formatting strings work by obtaining the equivalent property of the CultureInfo's DateTimeFormat. In this case "d" finds the ShortDatePattern property, which will be something like "dd.MM.yyyy", "dd/MM/yyyy", "MM/dd/yyyy", "yyyy-MM-dd" and so on, depending on that locale in question.

Hence you can make use of it in a custom pattern like so:

x.ToString("ddd " + ci.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern, ci) // Sat 2000-12-23 on my set up, should presumably be pon 23.12.2000 on yours