CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#datetime
Tom Gullen
Tom Gullen

Reputation: 61773

Can't convert time to ISO 8601 using C#

Consider this code:

TimeStamp.Text = BlogComment.Date.UtcNow.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz");

BlogComment.Date is a DateTime object with its date set. TimeStamp is just a literal.

I keep getting unrecognised escape sequence. How can I fix this problem?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3820

Answers (5)

Fun Mun Pieng
Fun Mun Pieng

Reputation: 6911

Try this:

Stamp.Text = BlogComment.Date.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH\\:mm\\:ss.fffffffzzz");

Or

Stamp.Text = BlogComment.Date.ToString(@"yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fffffffzzz");

My mistake: The \ is indeed required, because it might be a custom format specifier.

And if you just want the current time, use

Stamp.Text = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString(@"yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz");

UtcNow is static. It should not be accessed from an instance. It should be accessed from the class itself.

Alternatively, you might want:

Stamp.Text = BlogComment.Date.ToUniversalTime().ToString(@"yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz");

This would get you the universal time of the Date in BlogComment.

Upvotes: 1

pasx
pasx

Reputation: 2985

DateTime.UtcNow..ToString("o");

(o) Roundtrip (local):. . . . 2006-04-17T14:22:48.2698750-07:00

(o) Roundtrip (UTC):. . . . . 2006-04-17T21:22:48.2698750Z

(o) Roundtrip (Unspecified):. 2000-03-20T13:02:03.0000000

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zdtaw1bw(v=vs.85).aspx

Upvotes: 0

Robert Paulson
Robert Paulson

Reputation: 18081

When dealing with escaping characters in a DateTime format string, there's a similar question where @Oppositional's writes

When using custom format strings with a DateTime, it is important to remeber that you need to escape your seperators using single quotes.

string time = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString(
    "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fffffffzzz",
    DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);

The characters surrounded by the single quotes ' are literal strings inside a DateTime format string.

However, escaping the - and : is redundant if you are also specifying the Invariant culture. You should always specify the culture when formatting dates and times.

It's also important to note that / and : are the (invariant) date and time separators in a DateTime format string. DateTime.ToString will use the current cultures to transform them as necessary. For example, Italian (it-IT) has the . as its time separator. Similarly fr-CH has a date separator of .

You can see this escaping in action if you take a look at System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture.DateTimeFormat.UniversalSortableDateTimePattern which is yyyy'-'MM'-'dd HH':'mm':'ss'Z'

Upvotes: 0

BrokenGlass
BrokenGlass

Reputation: 161012

You want a string literal - prefixing a string with @ will not parse the string for escape sequences like you have in your string but take it in "literal" form.

@"yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz"

Edit:

Also there is no UtNow property on DateTime - this is a static property only available on the DateTime class. You can just write:

TimeStamp.Text = BlogComment.Date.ToString(@"yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz");

or if your intention was to convert the time to UTC:

TimeStamp.Text = BlogComment.Date
                            .ToUniversalTime()
                            .ToString(@"yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz");

Upvotes: 2

Bala R
Bala R

Reputation: 109027

EDIT:

 TimeStamp.Text =  BlogComment.Date.ToUniversalTime().ToString(@"yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz");

Upvotes: 1

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