How to display month number on selecting month name

Question

I have a list of Months displayed in a drop down. On selecting a particular month I would like to display the number of the month in a text box.

For example if I select January I would like to display it as 01, likewise for the others.

This is the sample code I have written:

string monthName = "january";
int i = DateTime.ParseExact(monthName, "MMMM", CultureInfo.CurrentCulture).Month;

Brian Webster · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-06T05:48:50.723

14

Use this code to convert the selected Month Name into a Month Number

DateTime.ParseExact(monthName, "MMMM", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).Month

Need String Padding?

PadleftMonthNumberString.PadLeft(2, "0")

References

Sample Console Application

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string mnthname = "january";
            int i = DateTime.ParseExact(mnthname, "MMMM", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).Month;
            Console.WriteLine(i.ToString());
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

edited Jun 06 '17 at 05:48

answered Aug 27 '11 at 04:42

Brian Webster

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I will not get the date right i will get only month names from Dropdown as per your answer i would like to give a proper date time – Vivekh Aug 27 '11 at 04:46
the word "time" does not exist in your question. I do not follow. You can ignore the fact that DateTime is used in my answer. That is simply the class that owns the ParseExact function. – Brian Webster Aug 27 '11 at 04:48
So what should i take then instead of DateTime – Vivekh Aug 27 '11 at 04:51
Use my answer exactly and you will be fine. It solves your question exactly as asked, so I think you will have no problem. – Brian Webster Aug 27 '11 at 04:53
`String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.` i am getting this error. I passed string as `January` – Vivekh Aug 27 '11 at 04:54
You're declaring "mnthname" but you're using "monthName". Can you fix that and see if it works? – Brian Webster Aug 27 '11 at 05:59
Please see my Update. I pasted your code in EXACTLY and it works perfectly in a new console application. Please verify which line your error is coming from – Brian Webster Aug 27 '11 at 06:12
Could the `CultureInfo.CurrentCulture` be different for Vivekh and that's causing the issue? – Enigmativity Aug 27 '11 at 06:22
Good Idea -- @Vivekh, please update your code to use `InvariantCulture` -- see my updated examples; however, I still think your error is somewhere else. – Brian Webster Aug 27 '11 at 06:27
I would like to get `01` instead of `1` – Vivekh Aug 27 '11 at 06:29
Vivekh, please read my whole answer. Use `Mystring.PadLeft(2, "0")` – Brian Webster Aug 27 '11 at 06:31

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 27 '11 at 04:48

3

Just trying to improvise(?) on hamlin11's answer, you can bypass the parse code by using the dropdown's selectedindex+1

answered Aug 27 '11 at 04:48

Schu

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Agreed, assuming chronological ordering and the existence of all 12 months – Brian Webster Aug 27 '11 at 04:50
I think this can be made as a statement instead of answer – Developer Aug 27 '11 at 06:38
that's my bad, i didn't have commenting privilege at that time – Schu Aug 27 '11 at 06:40

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 27 '11 at 06:30

Here's an alternative that doesn't require any parsing or using the index of the drop down.

Create a list of month value to month text and then use this to create a dictionary to map the text to the value. Like this:

var months =
    from m in Enumerable.Range(1, 12)
    select new
    {
        Value = m,
        Text = (new DateTime(2011, m, 1)).ToString("MMMM"),
    };

var list = months.Select(m => m.Text).ToArray();
var map = months.ToDictionary(m => m.Text, m => m.Value);

Now the drop down can be populated from list and any value selected can be converted back to the value using map.

var month = map["January"];

This generates the text rather than parsing it so it should work for any culture.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 22 '15 at 22:06

Using the index of the drop down list is a good option. You can also bind a dictionary to a drop down list. Creating a dictionary containing month names for the current culture:

var months = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.DateTimeFormat.MonthNames.Select ((m, i) =>
    new {
        Key = string.Format("{0,2}", i + 1),
        Value =  m,
    });

With databinding:

ddl.DataSource = months;
ddl.DataTextField = "Value";
ddl.DataValueField = "Key";
ddl.DataBind();

How to display month number on selecting month name

4 Answers4