C#: How to compare two dates

Question

I want to compare a date stored in a table in the form DD/MM/YYYY with the current date.

I need to know if it is earlier or later than DateTime.Now ...

Does someone have an idea to suggest?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

You can use DateTime.Compare for this:

var result = DateTime.Compare(Convert.ToDateTime(TextBox1.Text), DateTime.Today);
string relationship;

if (result < 0)
   relationship = "is earlier than";
else if (result == 0)
   relationship = "is the same time as";         
else
   relationship = "is later than";

Console.WriteLine("{0} {1} {2}", date1, relationship, date2);

See the documentation on MSDN for more details.

Answer 2

You can use the following code to parse your time stamps into DateTime objects and then compare as you like.

DateTime date;
DateTime.TryParseExact("12/03/2009", "dd/MM/yyyy", null, DateTimeStyles.None, out date);

See more here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx