Getting the first and last day of a month, using a given DateTime object

Question

DateTime structure stores only one value, not range of values. MinValue and MaxValue are static fields, which hold range of possible values for instances of DateTime structure. These fields are static and do not relate to particular instance of DateTime. They relate to DateTime type itself.

Suggested reading: static (C# Reference)

UPDATE: Getting month range:

DateTime date = ...
var firstDayOfMonth = new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, 1);
var lastDayOfMonth = firstDayOfMonth.AddMonths(1).AddDays(-1);

This is more a long comment on @Sergey and @Steffen's answers. Having written similar code myself in the past I decided to check what was most performant while remembering that clarity is important too.

Result

Here is an example test run result for 10 million iterations:

2257 ms for FirstDayOfMonth_AddMethod()
2406 ms for FirstDayOfMonth_NewMethod()
6342 ms for LastDayOfMonth_AddMethod()
4037 ms for LastDayOfMonth_AddMethodWithDaysInMonth()
4160 ms for LastDayOfMonth_NewMethod()
4212 ms for LastDayOfMonth_NewMethodWithReuseOfExtMethod()
2491 ms for LastDayOfMonth_SpecialCase()

Code

I used LINQPad 4 (in C# Program mode) to run the tests with compiler optimization turned on. Here is the tested code factored as Extension methods for clarity and convenience:

public static class DateTimeDayOfMonthExtensions
{
    public static DateTime FirstDayOfMonth_AddMethod(this DateTime value)
    {
        return value.Date.AddDays(1 - value.Day);
    }
    
    public static DateTime FirstDayOfMonth_NewMethod(this DateTime value)
    {
        return new DateTime(value.Year, value.Month, 1);
    }
    
    public static DateTime LastDayOfMonth_AddMethod(this DateTime value)
    {
        return value.FirstDayOfMonth_AddMethod().AddMonths(1).AddDays(-1);
    }
    
    public static DateTime LastDayOfMonth_AddMethodWithDaysInMonth(this DateTime value)
    {
        return value.Date.AddDays(DateTime.DaysInMonth(value.Year, value.Month) - value.Day);
    }
    
    public static DateTime LastDayOfMonth_SpecialCase(this DateTime value)
    {
        return value.AddDays(DateTime.DaysInMonth(value.Year, value.Month) - 1);
    }
    
    public static int DaysInMonth(this DateTime value)
    {
        return DateTime.DaysInMonth(value.Year, value.Month);
    }
    
    public static DateTime LastDayOfMonth_NewMethod(this DateTime value)
    {
        return new DateTime(value.Year, value.Month, DateTime.DaysInMonth(value.Year, value.Month));
    }

    public static DateTime LastDayOfMonth_NewMethodWithReuseOfExtMethod(this DateTime value)
    {
        return new DateTime(value.Year, value.Month, value.DaysInMonth());
    }
}

void Main()
{
    Random rnd = new Random();
    DateTime[] sampleData = new DateTime[10000000];
    
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        sampleData[i] = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).AddDays(rnd.Next(0, 365 * 50));
    }
    
    GC.Collect();
    System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch sw = System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        DateTime test = sampleData[i].FirstDayOfMonth_AddMethod();
    }
    string.Format("{0} ms for FirstDayOfMonth_AddMethod()", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds).Dump();
    
    GC.Collect();
    sw.Restart();
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        DateTime test = sampleData[i].FirstDayOfMonth_NewMethod();
    }
    string.Format("{0} ms for FirstDayOfMonth_NewMethod()", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds).Dump();
    
    GC.Collect();
    sw.Restart();
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        DateTime test = sampleData[i].LastDayOfMonth_AddMethod();
    }
    string.Format("{0} ms for LastDayOfMonth_AddMethod()", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds).Dump();

    GC.Collect();
    sw.Restart();
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        DateTime test = sampleData[i].LastDayOfMonth_AddMethodWithDaysInMonth();
    }
    string.Format("{0} ms for LastDayOfMonth_AddMethodWithDaysInMonth()", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds).Dump();

    GC.Collect();
    sw.Restart();
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        DateTime test = sampleData[i].LastDayOfMonth_NewMethod();
    }
    string.Format("{0} ms for LastDayOfMonth_NewMethod()", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds).Dump();

    GC.Collect();
    sw.Restart();
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        DateTime test = sampleData[i].LastDayOfMonth_NewMethodWithReuseOfExtMethod();
    }
    string.Format("{0} ms for LastDayOfMonth_NewMethodWithReuseOfExtMethod()", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds).Dump();

    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        sampleData[i] = sampleData[i].FirstDayOfMonth_AddMethod();
    }
    
    GC.Collect();
    sw.Restart();
    for(int i = 0; i < sampleData.Length; i++) {
        DateTime test = sampleData[i].LastDayOfMonth_SpecialCase();
    }
    string.Format("{0} ms for LastDayOfMonth_SpecialCase()", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds).Dump();
    
}

Analysis

I was surprised by some of these results.

Although there is not much in it the FirstDayOfMonth_AddMethod was slightly faster than FirstDayOfMonth_NewMethod in most runs of the test. However, I think the latter has a slightly clearer intent and so I have a preference for that.

LastDayOfMonth_AddMethod was a clear loser against LastDayOfMonth_AddMethodWithDaysInMonth, LastDayOfMonth_NewMethod and LastDayOfMonth_NewMethodWithReuseOfExtMethod. Between the fastest three there is nothing much in it and so it comes down to your personal preference. I choose the clarity of LastDayOfMonth_NewMethodWithReuseOfExtMethod with its reuse of another useful extension method. IMHO its intent is clearer and I am willing to accept the small performance cost.

LastDayOfMonth_SpecialCase assumes you are providing the first of the month in the special case where you may have already calculated that date and it uses the add method with DateTime.DaysInMonth to get the result. This is faster than the other versions, as you would expect, but unless you are in a desperate need for speed I don't see the point of having this special case in your arsenal.

Conclusion

Here is an extension method class with my choices and in general agreement with @Steffen I believe:

public static class DateTimeDayOfMonthExtensions
{
    public static DateTime FirstDayOfMonth(this DateTime value)
    {
        return new DateTime(value.Year, value.Month, 1);
    }
    
    public static int DaysInMonth(this DateTime value)
    {
        return DateTime.DaysInMonth(value.Year, value.Month);
    }
    
    public static DateTime LastDayOfMonth(this DateTime value)
    {
        return new DateTime(value.Year, value.Month, value.DaysInMonth());
    }
}

If you have got this far, thank you for time! Its been fun :¬). Please comment if you have any other suggestions for these algorithms.

Getting month range with .Net API (just another way):

DateTime date = ...
var firstDayOfMonth = new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, 1);
var lastDayOfMonth = new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, DateTime.DaysInMonth(date.Year, date.Month));

"Last day of month" is actually "First day of *next* month, minus 1". So here's what I use, no need for "DaysInMonth" method:

public static DateTime FirstDayOfMonth(this DateTime value)
{
    return new DateTime(value.Year, value.Month, 1);
}

public static DateTime LastDayOfMonth(this DateTime value)
{
    return value.FirstDayOfMonth()
        .AddMonths(1)
        .AddMinutes(-1);
}

NOTE: The reason I use AddMinutes(-1), not AddDays(-1) here is because usually you need these date functions for reporting for some date-period, and when you build a report for a period, the "end date" should actually be something like Oct 31 2015 23:59:59 so your report works correctly - including all the data from last day of month.

I.e. you actually get the "last moment of the month" here. Not Last day.

OK, I'm going to shut up now.

DateTime dCalcDate = DateTime.Now;
dtpFromEffDate.Value = new DateTime(dCalcDate.Year, dCalcDate.Month, 1);
dptToEffDate.Value = new DateTime(dCalcDate.Year, dCalcDate.Month, DateTime.DaysInMonth(dCalcDate.Year, dCalcDate.Month));