How do I calculate someone's age based on a DateTime type birthday?

Question

An easy to understand and simple solution.

// Save today's date.
var today = DateTime.Today;

// Calculate the age.
var age = today.Year - birthdate.Year;

// Go back to the year in which the person was born in case of a leap year
if (birthdate.Date > today.AddYears(-age)) age--;

However, this assumes you are looking for the western idea of the age and not using East Asian reckoning.

This is a strange way to do it, but if you format the date to yyyymmdd and subtract the date of birth from the current date then drop the last 4 digits you've got the age :)

I don't know C#, but I believe this will work in any language.

20080814 - 19800703 = 280111 

Drop the last 4 digits = 28.

C# Code:

int now = int.Parse(DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd"));
int dob = int.Parse(dateOfBirth.ToString("yyyyMMdd"));
int age = (now - dob) / 10000;

Or alternatively without all the type conversion in the form of an extension method. Error checking omitted:

public static Int32 GetAge(this DateTime dateOfBirth)
{
    var today = DateTime.Today;

    var a = (today.Year * 100 + today.Month) * 100 + today.Day;
    var b = (dateOfBirth.Year * 100 + dateOfBirth.Month) * 100 + dateOfBirth.Day;

    return (a - b) / 10000;
}

Here is a test snippet:

DateTime bDay = new DateTime(2000, 2, 29);
DateTime now = new DateTime(2009, 2, 28);
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("Test {0} {1} {2}",
                CalculateAgeWrong1(bDay, now),      // outputs 9
                CalculateAgeWrong2(bDay, now),      // outputs 9
                CalculateAgeCorrect(bDay, now),     // outputs 8
                CalculateAgeCorrect2(bDay, now)));  // outputs 8

Here you have the methods:

public int CalculateAgeWrong1(DateTime birthDate, DateTime now)
{
    return new DateTime(now.Subtract(birthDate).Ticks).Year - 1;
}

public int CalculateAgeWrong2(DateTime birthDate, DateTime now)
{
    int age = now.Year - birthDate.Year;

    if (now < birthDate.AddYears(age))
        age--;

    return age;
}

public int CalculateAgeCorrect(DateTime birthDate, DateTime now)
{
    int age = now.Year - birthDate.Year;

    if (now.Month < birthDate.Month || (now.Month == birthDate.Month && now.Day < birthDate.Day))
        age--;

    return age;
}

public int CalculateAgeCorrect2(DateTime birthDate, DateTime now)
{
    int age = now.Year - birthDate.Year;

    // For leap years we need this
    if (birthDate > now.AddYears(-age)) 
        age--;
    // Don't use:
    // if (birthDate.AddYears(age) > now) 
    //     age--;

    return age;
}

The simple answer to this is to apply AddYears as shown below because this is the only native method to add years to the 29th of Feb. of leap years and obtain the correct result of the 28th of Feb. for common years.

Some feel that 1th of Mar. is the birthday of leaplings but neither .Net nor any official rule supports this, nor does common logic explain why some born in February should have 75% of their birthdays in another month.

Further, an Age method lends itself to be added as an extension to DateTime. By this you can obtain the age in the simplest possible way:

1. List item

int age = birthDate.Age();

public static class DateTimeExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Calculates the age in years of the current System.DateTime object today.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="birthDate">The date of birth</param>
    /// <returns>Age in years today. 0 is returned for a future date of birth.</returns>
    public static int Age(this DateTime birthDate)
    {
        return Age(birthDate, DateTime.Today);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Calculates the age in years of the current System.DateTime object on a later date.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="birthDate">The date of birth</param>
    /// <param name="laterDate">The date on which to calculate the age.</param>
    /// <returns>Age in years on a later day. 0 is returned as minimum.</returns>
    public static int Age(this DateTime birthDate, DateTime laterDate)
    {
        int age;
        age = laterDate.Year - birthDate.Year;

        if (age > 0)
        {
            age -= Convert.ToInt32(laterDate.Date < birthDate.Date.AddYears(age));
        }
        else
        {
            age = 0;
        }

        return age;
    }
}

Now, run this test:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        RunTest();
    }

    private static void RunTest()
    {
        DateTime birthDate = new DateTime(2000, 2, 28);
        DateTime laterDate = new DateTime(2011, 2, 27);
        string iso = "yyyy-MM-dd";

        for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Birth date: " + birthDate.AddDays(i).ToString(iso) + "  Later date: " + laterDate.AddDays(j).ToString(iso) + "  Age: " + birthDate.AddDays(i).Age(laterDate.AddDays(j)).ToString());
            }
        }

        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

The critical date example is this:

Birth date: 2000-02-29 Later date: 2011-02-28 Age: 11

Output:

{
    Birth date: 2000-02-28  Later date: 2011-02-27  Age: 10
    Birth date: 2000-02-28  Later date: 2011-02-28  Age: 11
    Birth date: 2000-02-28  Later date: 2011-03-01  Age: 11
    Birth date: 2000-02-29  Later date: 2011-02-27  Age: 10
    Birth date: 2000-02-29  Later date: 2011-02-28  Age: 11
    Birth date: 2000-02-29  Later date: 2011-03-01  Age: 11
    Birth date: 2000-03-01  Later date: 2011-02-27  Age: 10
    Birth date: 2000-03-01  Later date: 2011-02-28  Age: 10
    Birth date: 2000-03-01  Later date: 2011-03-01  Age: 11
}

And for the later date 2012-02-28:

{
    Birth date: 2000-02-28  Later date: 2012-02-28  Age: 12
    Birth date: 2000-02-28  Later date: 2012-02-29  Age: 12
    Birth date: 2000-02-28  Later date: 2012-03-01  Age: 12
    Birth date: 2000-02-29  Later date: 2012-02-28  Age: 11
    Birth date: 2000-02-29  Later date: 2012-02-29  Age: 12
    Birth date: 2000-02-29  Later date: 2012-03-01  Age: 12
    Birth date: 2000-03-01  Later date: 2012-02-28  Age: 11
    Birth date: 2000-03-01  Later date: 2012-02-29  Age: 11
    Birth date: 2000-03-01  Later date: 2012-03-01  Age: 12
}

My suggestion

int age = (int) ((DateTime.Now - bday).TotalDays/365.242199);

That seems to have the year changing on the right date. (I spot tested up to age 107.)

Another function, not by me but found on the web and refined it a bit:

public static int GetAge(DateTime birthDate)
{
    DateTime n = DateTime.Now; // To avoid a race condition around midnight
    int age = n.Year - birthDate.Year;

    if (n.Month < birthDate.Month || (n.Month == birthDate.Month && n.Day < birthDate.Day))
        age--;

    return age;
}

Just two things that come into my mind: What about people from countries that do not use the Gregorian calendar? DateTime.Now is in the server-specific culture I think. I have absolutely zero knowledge about actually working with Asian calendars and I do not know if there is an easy way to convert dates between calendars, but just in case you're wondering about those Chinese guys from the year 4660 :-)

2 Main problems to solve are:

1. Calculate Exact age - in years, months, days, etc.

2. Calculate Generally perceived age - people usually do not care how old they exactly are, they just care when their birthday in the current year is.

---

Solution for 1 is obvious:

DateTime birth = DateTime.Parse("1.1.2000");
DateTime today = DateTime.Today;     //we usually don't care about birth time
TimeSpan age = today - birth;        //.NET FCL should guarantee this as precise
double ageInDays = age.TotalDays;    //total number of days ... also precise
double daysInYear = 365.2425;        //statistical value for 400 years
double ageInYears = ageInDays / daysInYear;  //can be shifted ... not so precise

---

Solution for 2 is the one which is not so precise in determing total age, but is perceived as precise by people. People also usually use it, when they calculate their age "manually":

DateTime birth = DateTime.Parse("1.1.2000");
DateTime today = DateTime.Today;
int age = today.Year - birth.Year;    //people perceive their age in years

if (today.Month < birth.Month ||
   ((today.Month == birth.Month) && (today.Day < birth.Day)))
{
  age--;  //birthday in current year not yet reached, we are 1 year younger ;)
          //+ no birthday for 29.2. guys ... sorry, just wrong date for birth
}

Notes to 2.:

• This is my preferred solution
• We cannot use DateTime.DayOfYear or TimeSpans, as they shift number of days in leap years
• I have put there little more lines for readability

Just one more note ... I would create 2 static overloaded methods for it, one for universal usage, second for usage-friendliness:

public static int GetAge(DateTime bithDay, DateTime today) 
{ 
  //chosen solution method body
}

public static int GetAge(DateTime birthDay) 
{ 
  return GetAge(birthDay, DateTime.Now);
}