Formatting nullable DateTime fields in strong typed View

Question

I have a Person class with a BornDate property in my model defined as

[DisplayName("Born Date")]
public DateTime? BornDate { get; set; }

I use this field in my view as

<td style="white-space:nowrap">
    <%= Html.LabelFor(model => model.BornDate)%>
    <br />
    <%= Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.BornDate, new { id = "bornDate" })%>
    <%= Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.BornDate, "*")%>
</td>

The problem is that when I am editing a Person instance with the BornDate text box is formatted as

dd/MM/yyyy hh.mm.ss

while I would like to format it without the time part ("dd/MM/yyyy"). I am not able to use the toString method with the format string because it is a nullable field.

what can I do?

Good example also here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12633471 — Azoro, Jan 03 '13 at 11:52
Good example about same problem can be found here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12633471 — Azoro, Jan 03 '13 at 11:54

James Hull · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-10T11:27:08.350

11

You should be able to use Value. Just check it isn't null first.

var displayDate = model.BornDate.HasValue ? model.BornDate.Value.ToString("yyyy") : "NoDate";

edited Sep 10 '10 at 11:27

answered Sep 10 '10 at 11:20

James Hull

3,669
2
27
36

First of all thanks for your response. Where do I have to put this code? If I put it inside the TextBoxFor function, within the lambda expression, I get an InvalidOperationException "Templates can be used only with field access, property access, single-dimension array index, or single-parameter custom indexer expressions." – Lorenzo Sep 10 '10 at 12:07
1

Hrm... yeah I forgot the fact you are using strongly typed helpers. I think the only way round this is to use the TextBox helper: <%= Html.TextBox("date", Model.BornDate.Value.ToString("yyyy"), new { id = "bornDate" }) %> – James Hull Sep 10 '10 at 12:36
if anyone has issue to display date in View check [this](http://stackoverflow.com/a/29742649/2218697) instead of `DisplayFor` – Shaiju T Apr 20 '15 at 08:47

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '14 at 07:52

8

I know this is very late but I was researching another problem and came across this issue. There is a way to only show the date part which does not require presentation layer formatting.

[DisplayName("Born Date")]
[DataType(DataType.Date)]
public DateTime? BornDate { get; set; }

Using this will ensure that everywhere you bind to this property on your View, only the date will show

Hope this helps somebody

edited May 23 '14 at 07:52

Community

1
1

answered Jan 31 '11 at 11:29

davidferguson

760
5
9

Doesn't work in current versions of Razor (4+); can't speak to older ones. – brichins Dec 20 '18 at 17:26
this doesn't work on all Html helpers, specifically TextBoxFor – tnJed Mar 14 '22 at 17:32

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 28 '11 at 16:34

6

To do this in your VIEW, you can use Razor syntax, as well:

 @Html.TextBox("BornDate", item.BornDate.HasValue ? item.BornDate.Value.ToShortDateString():"")

answered Oct 28 '11 at 16:34

brad oyler

3,669
1
20
22

How should I use for DisplayFor? – CMMaung Jun 24 '13 at 02:21

Shazwazza · Answer 4 · 2011-04-06T10:15:30.017

2

You can do this, it will work with Nullable model types:

@model DateTime?
@{
    object txtVal = "";
    if (Model.HasValue) 
    {
        txtVal = Model.Value;
    };
}
@Html.TextBoxFor(x => Model, new {Value = string.Format(ViewData.ModelMetadata.EditFormatString, txtVal))

edited Apr 06 '11 at 10:15

answered Apr 06 '11 at 09:04

Shazwazza

781
5
18

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 21 '19 at 13:13

0

Another way I've tackled this issue is by adding format to the TextBoxFor

@Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.BornDate, "{0:MM/dd/yyyy}", new { id = "bornDate" })

answered Jun 21 '19 at 13:13

Brave Programmer

1

Formatting nullable DateTime fields in strong typed View

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