extract the date part from DateTime in C#

Question

The line of code DateTime d = DateTime.Today; results in 10/12/2011 12:00:00 AM. How can I get only the date part.I need to ignore the time part when I compare two dates.

@digem : Do you mean that midnight is _shown_ as 12AM? Could be. I don't think Today would actually return a culture-dependent value. — H H, Oct 12 '11 at 13:10
@Henk: in english cultures Today.ToString() returns that value ;) — digEmAll, Oct 12 '11 at 13:10
@Henk: yes sorry, I was inaccurate. Actually the ToString() returns that value if you use for example en-US culture. It's just because "12.00 AM" is equal to the "00.00" in 24h format ;) (I know it seems strange for non-english people, I'm italian...) — digEmAll, Oct 12 '11 at 13:12

Sreekumar P · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-17T05:25:45.517

125

DateTime is a DataType which is used to store both Date and Time. But it provides Properties to get the Date Part.

You can get the Date part from Date Property.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.datetime.date.aspx

DateTime date1 = new DateTime(2008, 6, 1, 7, 47, 0);
Console.WriteLine(date1.ToString());

// Get date-only portion of date, without its time.
DateTime dateOnly = date1.Date;
// Display date using short date string.
Console.WriteLine(dateOnly.ToString("d"));
// Display date using 24-hour clock.
Console.WriteLine(dateOnly.ToString("g"));
Console.WriteLine(dateOnly.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm"));   
// The example displays the following output to the console:
//       6/1/2008 7:47:00 AM
//       6/1/2008
//       6/1/2008 12:00 AM
//       06/01/2008 00:00

edited Jul 17 '12 at 05:25

answered Oct 12 '11 at 13:04

Sreekumar P

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var object = DateTime.Now; object.Date.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm") – John Zumbrum Aug 23 '12 at 16:46
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[Here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/39316624/2218697) is **another solution** using `String.Format`, hope helps someone. – Shaiju T Sep 04 '16 at 11:56

Oded · Answer 2 · 2011-10-12T13:06:56.470

33

There is no way to "discard" the time component.

DateTime.Today is the same as:

DateTime d = DateTime.Now.Date;

If you only want to display only the date portion, simply do that - use ToString with the format string you need.

For example, using the standard format string "D" (long date format specifier):

d.ToString("D");

edited Oct 12 '11 at 13:06

answered Oct 12 '11 at 13:01

Oded

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+1: Sometimes the answer is just a `.` away – Neil Knight Oct 12 '11 at 13:02
1

@Oded. No. It returns the same. `10/12/2011 12:00:00 AM`. – Rauf Oct 12 '11 at 13:03
@Rauf - You can't get rid of that portion. You can choose not to display it though. – Oded Oct 12 '11 at 13:05

Øyvind Bråthen · Answer 3 · 2013-12-19T08:15:02.750

16

When comparing only the date of the datatimes, use the Date property. So this should work fine for you

datetime1.Date == datetime2.Date

edited Dec 19 '13 at 08:15

answered Oct 12 '11 at 13:02

Øyvind Bråthen

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this is the best answer. – Adam Dec 17 '13 at 17:02
+1, this is relevant for `comparing` dates. other answers are for displaying them – actual_kangaroo Feb 20 '14 at 04:33

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 03 '18 at 02:51

DateTime d = DateTime.Today.Date;
Console.WriteLine(d.ToShortDateString()); // outputs just date

if you want to compare dates, ignoring the time part, make an use of DateTime.Year and DateTime.DayOfYear properties.

code snippet

DateTime d1 = DateTime.Today;
DateTime d2 = DateTime.Today.AddDays(3);
if (d1.Year < d2.Year)
    Console.WriteLine("d1 < d2");
else
    if (d1.DayOfYear < d2.DayOfYear)
        Console.WriteLine("d1 < d2");

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 12 '11 at 13:04

6

you can use a formatstring

DateTime time = DateTime.Now;              
String format = "MMM ddd d HH:mm yyyy";     
Console.WriteLine(time.ToString(format));

answered Oct 12 '11 at 13:04

Nico Vermeir

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extract the date part from DateTime in C#

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