How can I write a "fluent" datetime value?

Question

How do I Write C# code that will allow to compile the following code :

var date = 8.September(2013); // Generates a DateTime for the 8th of September 2013

Answer 1

You can use an extension method:

public static class MyExtensions
{
    public static DateTime September(this int day, int year)
    {
        return new DateTime(year, 9, day);
    }
}

However, this is generally bad practice, and I'd recommend against this kind of thing, especially for something as trivial as this—is new DateTime(2013, 9, 8) really so much more difficult than 8.September(2013)? There may be times where this kind of trick can be useful or fun for practice, but it should be used sparingly.

Answer 2

I would recommend against this, as it strikes me as very poor style. That said, if you really want to do this statically, you would need to define twelve different extension methods (one for each month name) like so:

public static class DateConstructionExtensions
{
    public static DateTime January(this int day, int year)
    {
        return new DateTime(year, /* month: */1, day);
    }

    // equivalent methods for February, March, etc...
}