String Format for DateTime [C#]

This example shows how to format DateTime using String.Format method. All formatting can be done also using DateTime.ToString method.

Custom DateTime Formatting

There are following custom format specifiers y (year), M (month), d (day), h (hour 12), H (hour 24), m (minute), s (second), f (second fraction), F (second fraction, trailing zeroes are trimmed), t (P.M or A.M) and z (time zone).

Following examples demonstrate how are the format specifiers rewritten to the output.

// create date time 2008-03-09 16:05:07.123
DateTime dt = new DateTime(2008, 3, 9, 16, 5, 7, 123);
String.Format("{0:y yy yyy yyyy}", dt);
// "8 08 008 2008" year
String.Format("{0:M MM MMM MMMM}", dt);
// "3 03 Mar March" month
String.Format("{0:d dd ddd dddd}", dt);
// "9 09 Sun Sunday" day
String.Format("{0:h hh H HH}", dt);
// "4 04 16 16" hour 12/24
String.Format("{0:m mm}", dt);
// "5 05" minute
String.Format("{0:s ss}", dt);
// "7 07" second
String.Format("{0:f ff fff ffff}", dt);
// "1 12 123 1230" sec.fraction
String.Format("{0:F FF FFF FFFF}", dt);
// "1 12 123 123" without zeroes
String.Format("{0:t tt}", dt);
// "P PM" A.M. or P.M.
String.Format("{0:z zz zzz}",
dt); // "-6 -06 -06:00" time zone

You can use also date separator / (slash) and time sepatator : (colon). These characters will be rewritten to characters defined in the current DateTimeForma­tInfo.DateSepa­rator and DateTimeForma­tInfo.TimeSepa­rator.

// date separator in german culture is "." (so "/" changes to ".")
String.Format("{0:d/M/yyyy HH:mm:ss}", dt); // "9/3/2008 16:05:07"
- english (en-US)
String.Format("{0:d/M/yyyy HH:mm:ss}", dt); // "9.3.2008 16:05:07"
- german (de-DE)

Here are some examples of custom date and time formatting:

// month/day numbers without/with leading zeroes
String.Format("{0:M/d/yyyy}", dt);
// "3/9/2008"
String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yyyy}", dt);
// "03/09/2008"
// day/month names
String.Format("{0:ddd, MMM d, yyyy}", dt);
// "Sun, Mar 9, 2008"
String.Format("{0:dddd, MMMM d, yyyy}", dt);
// "Sunday, March 9, 2008"
// two/four digit year
String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yy}", dt);
// "03/09/08"
String.Format("{0:MM/dd/yyyy}", dt);
// "03/09/2008"

Standard DateTime Formatting

In DateTimeForma­tInfo there are defined standard patterns for the current culture. For example property ShortTimePattern is string that contains value h:mm tt for en-US culture and value HH:mm for de-DE culture.

Following table shows patterns defined in DateTimeForma­tInfo and their values for en-US culture. First column contains format specifiers for the String.Format method.

Specifier	DateTimeFormatInfo property	Pattern value (for en-US culture)
t	ShortTimePattern	h:mm tt
d	ShortDatePattern	M/d/yyyy
T	LongTimePattern	h:mm:ss tt
D	LongDatePattern	dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy
f	(combination of D and t)	dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy h:mm tt
F	FullDateTimePattern	dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy h:mm:ss tt
g	(combination of d and t)	M/d/yyyy h:mm tt
G	(combination of d and T)	M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt
m, M	MonthDayPattern	MMMM dd
y, Y	YearMonthPattern	MMMM, yyyy
r, R	RFC1123Pattern	ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH':'mm':'ss 'GMT' (*)
s	SortableDateTi­mePattern	yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss (*)
u	UniversalSorta­bleDateTimePat­tern	yyyy'-'MM'-'dd HH':'mm':'ss'Z' (*)
		(*) = culture independent

Following examples show usage of standard format specifiers in String.Format method and the resulting output.

String.Format("{0:t}", dt); // "4:05 PM"
ShortTime
String.Format("{0:d}", dt); // "3/9/2008"
ShortDate
String.Format("{0:T}", dt); // "4:05:07 PM"
LongTime
String.Format("{0:D}", dt); // "Sunday, March 09, 2008"
LongDate
String.Format("{0:f}", dt); // "Sunday, March 09, 2008 4:05 PM"
LongDate+ShortTime
String.Format("{0:F}", dt); // "Sunday, March 09, 2008 4:05:07 PM"
FullDateTime
String.Format("{0:g}", dt); // "3/9/2008 4:05 PM"
ShortDate+ShortTime
String.Format("{0:G}", dt); // "3/9/2008 4:05:07 PM"
ShortDate+LongTime
String.Format("{0:m}", dt); // "March 09"
MonthDay
String.Format("{0:y}", dt); // "March, 2008"
YearMonth
String.Format("{0:r}", dt); // "Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:05:07 GMT"
RFC1123
String.Format("{0:s}", dt); // "2008-03-09T16:05:07"
SortableDateTime
String.Format("{0:u}", dt); // "2008-03-09 16:05:07Z"
UniversalSortableDateTime